A Provo resident has donated a nearly 400-year-old Bible written in Old Norse, now the modern Icelandic language, to BYU.

The 6-inch-thick tome, covered in richly patinated leather, is part of the second edition ever printed in Iceland. Brigham Young University curators called the Bible extremely rare and said the paper inside is unusually soft. They were not immediately sure what the paper is made of. The ink inside the book remains a vibrant, deep black, which curators said could be attributed to a printing process that involved wetting the pages, allowing the press to make unusually deep impressions.

The Old Testament section of the book was printed in 1643, and the New Testament in 1644, according to curators. BYU asked Leifson to have the book appraised, and Rulon Miller Books, a rare-books dealer in Saint Paul, Minn., described the text in a written report provided to BYU and Leifson.

"For beauty of language and faithful simplicity of style the finer parts of this version, especially the New Testament, have never been surpassed in any tongue: They stand worthy beside the work of Tyndale, Luther and Ulfila, foremost monuments of the Teutonic tongues," according to the report.

Leifson's copy is missing eight pages, according to the report. Four copies of this Bible are known to have sold over the past 30 years, the best, judged to be a "fine, complete copy" fetched nearly $16,000 in 2006, according to the report.

Leifson asked that the Daily Herald not disclose the appraised value of the text, but BYU curators said they would keep it in their vault because of its value.

"I was surprised that he would have something like this in his family," said Scott Duvall, who is in charge of special collections at BYU, of the moment when Leifson offered the book to the school as a donation.

Leifson, whose father spoke fluent Icelandic, was able to read several passages of the Bible on Friday without much difficulty. He said that because Iceland was so isolated, its language has changed little over the centuries.

Leifson had promised the Bible to one of his sons, but decided recently to donate it to BYU instead because the school would be able to protect and preserve the book in perpetuity, and would allow scholars access to the book.

"I feel very comfortable putting it into the hands of BYU, because I know it will have proper care," Leifson said.

The book is interspersed with exquisite wood-cut block print illustrations that remain in near-pristine condition. Panels of the art depict Jesus Christ's baptism in the River Jordan, his ascension into Heaven after visiting his disciples following the crucifixion and other sacred stories.

One notable panel illustrates Moses, depicted with horns, returning from the mount with the Ten Commandments engraved on two tablets. That depiction was historically common because of a mistranslation of a verse of Exodus that referred to rays of light as horns, said Maggie Gallup, curator of European books at BYU's library.

Duvall said the school has the largest Bible collection in the intermountain West, focusing on texts from the reformation period. But the Old Norse text is the first of that language collected by the school, he said.

"It is not complete without Iceland," said Leifson to Duvall of the school's collection, as the two looked at the Bible on Friday.

In 2011, BYU will mount a major exhibition of its Bible collection in honor of the 400th anniversary of the printing of the first edition of the King James Bible, and Leifson's donation could be featured in that exhibit, Duvall and Gallup said.