Location: The Convento Museum
Printed in Lyon, France, this vellum-bound Latin Bible from 1568 is believed to be the oldest Bible in California. Tradition holds that St. Junípero Serra himself carried this precious volume on his arduous missionary journeys, from Loreto to San Diego, then Monterey, and finally to Carmel Mission.
While the Bible is not signed by Junípero Serra, its half-title page—the most likely place for an inscription—is missing. The title page, however, bears one unclear signature, an “ex libris” (from the library of) inscription, and a partial date from the 1780s. There are several internal Latin inscriptions, some in Serra’s hand.
Though definitive proof is lacking, strong local tradition maintains that this is the very Bible that accompanied Serra on his journey from Mexico to the Mission.
In a remarkable intersection of colonial and modern California history, Serra’s Bible gained additional prominence when Ronald Reagan chose it for his first-term gubernatorial swearing-in ceremony in 1967.
