"Five Centuries of the Printed Bible" will be on display through Jan. 25 and includes items from the 15th century through the 20th century. It is located on the library's exhibit area in the second floor's west wing.

"The earliest existing book printed with metal movable type on the printing press was the Gutenberg Bible, printed between 1450 and 1455," said Tony Gardner, curator of the exhibit. "Since that time, the Bible has been a 'best seller,' undergoing frequent printings by many different presses. The library's collection of Bibles, from the 15th through the 20th centuries, help illustrate the history of printing."

The Oviatt Library is located in the center of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. The exhibit is open to the public during the library's operating hours, which are Monday through Thursday, 7:45 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday, 7:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Among the items on display are:

• A facsimile of the Gutenberg Bible, printed in Latin about 1454 by Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, who is generally credited with founding the craft of printing with moveable type on the printing press. He printed about 200 copies, of which 48 are known to have survived.
• Y Bibl dwyleithog, printed in 1823-27. This is the earliest diglot Welsh Bible printed in three columns with the Welsh on the left and English on the far right.
• The hieroglyphick Bible, published in 1841. This illustrated children's Bible is a reprint of Isaiah Thomas' publication that appeared in 1788. The illustrations replace some of the words as a way to deliver Biblical instruction and teach reading to children. American artists made the 500 woodcuts.
• Biblia, published by Gedruckt bey Christoph Saur in 1776 in Germantown, Penn. The third edition of Saur's Biblia was just coming off the press in 1776 when the British invaded Germantown and used the pages as bedding and wadding in their muskets. This edition is sometimes called the "Gunpowder Bible."

For more information about the exhibit, call (818) 677-2638.

The Oviatt Library is home to more than one million volumes, three million microfilms, 125,000 government publications, 7,798 periodical titles and an extensive historical collection of mixed media, rare books and archives. It serves as the main research facility for the San Fernando Valley.

California State University, Northridge has more than 30,000 full- and part-time students and offers 63 bachelor's and 51 master's degrees. Founded in 1958, it is the only four-year university in the San Fernando Valley and the third largest in the 23-campus CSU system. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges recently said CSUN "stands as a model to other public urban institutions of higher education."