Bible. Psalter, polyglot

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Description

Psalterium, Hebreum, Grecu[m], Arabicu[m], & Chaldeu[m], cum tribus latinis interpretationibus & glossis. Genoa: Petrus Paulus Porrus for Nicolaus Justinianus Paulus, November 1516

Folio (12 5 /16 x 8 3/4 in.; 320 x 222 mm.), Roman, Hebrew, Greek and Arabic types. 4 cols. 41 lines of text, 73 lines commentary. collation: A^{10 A-Z^{8 &^{8 )^{6: [200] ff. ; f. [5] misbound, worm punctures on first few and last few leaves and scattered elsewhere, occasional dampstains or foxing, a few quires browned, quire I misbound after quire K. Title printed in red and black within an arabesque woodcut strapwork border, red printing heading first verse of each column, 5 six-line, 7 four-line, and one four-commentary-line white-on-black floriated initials, Porrus' woodcut device on )6r; early ms. exlibris struck through on title. Antique maroon morocco, blind-stamped in a panel design with one gold-stamped frame, in an olive cloth drop-box; one edge of box split.}}}}

Provenance

Fr[ater] Gaspar Ma[ri]a (contemporary ms. exlibris on title)

Literature

Adams B-1370; Darlow & Moule 1411; European Americana 516/4; Isaac 13835; Sabin 66468

Catalogue Note

first edition of the polyglot Psalter, the second book printed in Arabic, and the first polyglot printing of any section of the Bible, preceding by four years the publication of the Complutensian Polyglot.

The work was prepared by Agostino Giustiniani, Bishop of Nebbio, who describes in the preface his plan to issue the full text of the Bible in this form: parallel columns of Hebrew text, literal Latin translation of the Hebrew, the Latin Vulgate, Greek Septuagint, Arabic, Aramaic, literal Latin translation of the Aramaic, and commentary. The work is most famous for Giustiniani's gloss on Psalm xix.4 which includes an early note on his fellow Genoan Columbus and his discoveries.