![brave new world online copy gutenberg brave new world online copy gutenberg](https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/5275446/screenshots/11341253/media/e4da5ae2f69de39cbbbee275a86ebdd4.jpg)
For them, this copy of the bible was a pledge of friendship, a memento of revolutionary changes, and a source of shared religious convictions. The Reformation swept through this region and introduced a new religious and political order, disenfranchising some church officials and making the careers of others such as Opitz and Gaubisch. In the following year, the protestant Elector of Saxony assumed political control of Bischofswerda, formerly a domain belonging to the catholic bishops of Meissen. Not coincidentally, Gaubisch was appointed the first Lutheran minister in his parish in the same year. He took on the post at Bischofswerda in 1558 when the previous pastor resigned in protest against the Lutheran doctrines newly adopted in that region. There is no telling how this book fell into the hands of Opitz, "a congenial and learned man," who was born not far from Bischofswerda in Lobendau or Lobendava in the Czech Republic.
![brave new world online copy gutenberg brave new world online copy gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18663/18663-h/images/cover.jpg)
Opitz and Gaubisch must have been well acquainted since they performed their pastoral duties in neighboring towns in Saxony, just a few miles east of Dresden. The earliest mark of provenance is a gift inscription dated 1565 on I,2r indicating that Hieronymus Opitz, pastor of a church in Bischofswerda had presented it as a token of respect and friendship to Melchior Gaubisch, a Lutheran minister in Langenwolmsdorf. The original purchaser of this volume cannot be identified. The Irwin-Hilliard Collection, University of Louisville.