Beschreibung:

BIBLE – COMPLUTENSIAN POLYGLOT, in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin. Alcalá de Henares: Arnald Guillén de Brocar, 1514-17. The Chatsworth copy of the first and most beautiful of the great Polyglot Bibles—and the first printings of both the Septuagint and the Greek New Testament. Cardinal Francisco Ximenes commissioned this monument to Renaissance scholarship in honor of the birth of the future Charles V. To reconcile the many variations in the Latin Vulgate, the team of editors turned to the originals, consulting Greek and Hebrew manuscripts borrowed from the Vatican or purchased by Ximenes for the project. Printer Guillén de Brocar modeled his Greek typeface on one of these, cited by Proctor as "the finest Greek fount ever cut." The Septuagint, comprising vols I-IV, was finished in 1517—a year before the Aldine Greek Bible. The fifth volume, containing the New Testament, was actually the first to be printed, thus predating Erasmus's 1516 Greek New Testament. However, although completed in 1517, the Complutensian Bible was not officially published until 1520, the year in which the exclusive privilege for Erasmus's inferior Greek New Testament expired. The Papal privilege for the present edition was granted in March 1520 and specifies that as many as 600 copies were printed. Its text was the basis for Robert Estienne’s 1550 Greek New Testament, known as the ‘textus receptus’, which became the primary text of Biblical criticism for the next three centuries. Adams B968; Darlow & Moule 1412 and 4593; PMM 52. Six volumes, folio (365 x 253mm). Hebrew, Greek, and Roman types, titles printed in red and black, with woodcut arms of Cardinal Ximenes in woodcut border, woodcut initials in vol. 5, printer's device (without blanks; occasional spotting, dampstain affecting top inner corner of vol. 6). 18th-century calf, spines gilt, edges red (some joints cracked; discreet repairs to spines; labels slightly chipped); slipcases. Provenance : Dukes of Devonshire (Chatsworth bookplate) – The Valmadonna Library.