Bible, Polyglot, edited by Walton, London, 1655-1657, 6 volumes, calf

Bible. Polyglot

Biblia sacra polyglotta (Appendix). London: Thomas Roycroft, 1655-1657

FIRST EDITION, 6 volumes, folio (456 x 270mm.), RULED IN RED, engraved frontispiece portrait of Walton, engraved title-page by Wenceslas Hollar, letterpress title printed in red and black, parallel Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Samaritan (for the Pentateuch), Ethiopic (for Job to Malachi and the New Testament), Persian (Gospels) and Arabic texts, 2 double-page engraved maps, 6 engravings (5 double-page), with errata leaf at end of prelims in volume 1 and end of volume 6, with final blank at end of volumes 1 and 4, woodcut illustrations in text, woodcut initials, some deckle edges, contemporary mottled calf gilt, a few small marginal tears or wormholes, rebacked and recornered with slight worming to bindings

A tall copy of this monumental edition of the Bible, following the Complutensian, Plantin and Le Jay Polyglot Bibles, though now including texts in Ethiopic and Persian.

The printing began in 1653 and the first version of Walton's preface acknowledged the assistance of Oliver Cromwell, though this was subsequently altered in a later printing; this copy contains the revised text of the preface, which also has a printed correction slip over the name of "Dom. Gaulminus", replacing it with "Dom. Hardie", and a manuscript correction to the name Radulphus Hyde, which now reads Thomas Hyde. Another longer printed correction slip occurs on M2v in the preliminaries. Copies with a two-leaf dedication to Charles II are also recorded, though this is not present in this copy.

REFERENCES: Darlow & Moule 1446; Wing B2797

PROVENANCE: Henry B. Hall, inscription on title-pages