Lot 189
  • 189

New Testament in Greek & Latin

Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • '[Greek title: HAPANTA TA TÊS KAINÊS DIATHÊKÊS.] Nouum Iesu Christi D. N. Testamentum. Cum duplici interpretatione, D. Erasmi, & Veteris interpretis: Harmonia item Euangelica, & copioso Indice.' [Geneva:] Robert Estienne, 1551
  • leather,ink,paper
Octavo (140 × 90 mm), Volume I only of two. Collation: a-z aa-zz aaa-mmm8 (title with device, preface, Gospels, Acts; mmm8 blank): 464 leaves, a3r-mmm7r foliated 3-463. Greek and Roman types, three columns. Early nineteenth-century vellum, morocco spine label, edges gilt, red-ruled, leaves washed, a tall copy.

Provenance

Pierre Sauret or Saurot (bleached inscription on title-page, 'ex libris petri saurot[?]'; Théodore de Bèze, 'Histoire ecclésiastique des églises reformées au royaume de France,' Antwerp, 1580, p. 772, records a Pierre Sauret among the Protestants executed in Aurillac in September 1562, shortly after the St Bartholomew’s day massacre in Paris)

Literature

'Formatting the Word of God' 11.3; Darlow & Moule 4623; Adams B1688

Condition

Octavo (140 × 90 mm), Volume I only of two. Collation: a-z aa-zz aaa-mmm8 (title with device, preface, Gospels, Acts; mmm8 blank): 464 leaves, a3r-mmm7r foliated 3-463. Greek and Roman types, three columns. Early nineteenth-century vellum, morocco spine label, edges gilt, red-ruled, leaves washed, a tall copy.
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Catalogue Note

One of Robert Estienne’s earliest Geneva publications; he omitted the place of printing, as Geneva imprints were banned from import into France. The first Bible edition with modern verse numbering, this being Estienne’s innovation. His preface explains the rationale: numbered “versiculi” in distinct paragraphs would help beginners in Greek to compare easily the Greek text in the central column, with the old and familiar (Vulgate) Latin version, printed at the inner column in small type, and with Erasmus’s revised Latin version in the outer column, the latter specifically modified by Erasmus to reflect more accurately the Greek wording.