Children, parents and grandparents moved around the display cases spread throughout the room at the Pontifical College Josephinum. Inside the cases were illuminated manuscripts and early writings, pieces of history dating from 3500 B.C. to the 17th century.Susan Fryt of New Albany purchased a sheet of music from the Renaissance period and a piece of linen that bore two picture characters from an Egyptian mummy wrap. Fryt said she and her husband collect art for enjoyment rather than investment.”It’s interesting to consider the age and where it’s been,” Fryt said.Collectors and admirers turned out Saturday and Sunday for the exhibit and sale of over 500 pieces at the Columbus school’s Jessing Conference Center. John Reiner, who brought the collection to the college, said it belongs to Bruce Ferrini, a world-renowned art consultant and dealer from Akron.”I only expect a tiny portion to sell,” Ferrini said. He said the exhibit and sale was more for publicity and exposure to other collectors.”I travel constantly,” he said, and spoke of buying pieces in Paris and other cities. “I go wherever the collectors are.”The oldest piece in the collection was a small tablet from Mesopotamia dated to 3500 B.C. It was covered with pre-cuneiform picture writing.”It is one of the oldest known writings in the world,” Ferrini said. “It’s definitely the oldest known in America.”The tablet was the only piece which did not carry a price tag.Most of the pieces in the collection were illuminated manuscripts or single leaves from books, Reiner said. There were pieces from France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Flanders and other countries which were dated throughout the 12th to 17th centuries.The most expensive piece was the first English translation of the New Testament, Reiner said. It was written in Middle English and could be bought for $475,000. Another special piece was the last known text about an Arthurian Legend, from the mid-14th century, Reiner said. It was written in Latin and valued at $375,000.Ferrini said he has been collecting the pieces since 1965, but started collecting in different areas and building a larger collection. The reason for this sale is to make room for new piecesHe said he agreed to hold the sale at the College Josephinum because, as a school of theology, people care more for the pieces there.”We thought it was appropriate to match the manuscripts with this group,” Ferrini said.Ferrini’s son Matthew was also present at the exhibit and sale. Matthew, who is 17 and plans to major in art history, helps with the descriptions and cataloging of the pieces in his father’s collection. Matthew said the pieces are usually in very good condition and do not need much restoration because they have always been in book form. As books, they tend to be preserved better than single pages or papers.The pieces are also more sturdy because they are written on vellum, or animal skin. During the Renaissance, it was often made from cowhide, he said. It is also called parchment.Most of the manuscripts were Books of Hours from the Renaissance Period, Matthew said. These are private devotional books owned by wealthy families and used for prayer and meditation eight times a day.”They were really used to show off,” Matthew said, citing the quality of artwork and amount of illumination. He said the original purpose was to lead the owner to health and salvation, but later the books were used more as displays for visitors and friends of the families.The gold leaf seen in many illuminated texts was sheets of gold that were pasted onto the page and polished to a shine with animal teeth, Matthew said. Dyes and plants used to create the other colors were kept secret within the guilds that created the pieces, Reiner said. Reiner, an Ohio State University alumnus and president of Oakland Nurseries in Columbus, said he first saw some of Ferrini’s manuscripts 20 years ago. As a member of Friends of the Josephinum, a group of contributers to the school, he organized the exhibit and sale this weekend.”Ferrini is one of the three greatest collectors in the world for this kind of art,” Reiner said.Standing amid cases filled with centuries-old tablets, manuscripts and pages, that is not hard to believe.”See what happened before people had TVs?” Reiner said. “They actually did something.”