[Plantin’s Polygott Bible.] Ed. Ariae Montanus.

(Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1572). Large folio. Engr. front,+ (6),+ 720, 709-731,+ (1),+ 213,+ (2) pp. Stain in inner upper corner and a small worm hole through pp. 590-650. Contemporary blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards, spine with raised bands, handwritten title on the top compartment and an old paper label, ”A. 142”, on the lower, boards with rolled decor, brass clad corners and middle knobs, blue edges and two preserved decorated brass clasps. The 10 brass corners and middle knobs are from the 15th century, and the brass corners with corrupt latin texts. From the library of the Carthusian monastry at Buxheim, Kartause Buxheim, with its library stamp and handwritten signature on the half title, also the library signum on the spine is from the Buxheim library. From the library of Victor von Stedingk with book plate. Brekka, The Antwerp Polyglott Bible, (diss 2012). Adams 970. Fine copy of the second part of the famous Antwerp Polyglot Bible by Plantin, edited by Benedictus Arias Montanus. This part contains the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel 1-2, Kings 1-2 and Paralipomenon. The fine engraved frontispiece is made by Jan Wierix (1549-1918) and shows the Israelites Crossing the River Jordan transporting the Ark of the Covenant as described in Joshua 3:13-17.The Biblia Regia – so called because it was financed by the king of Spain Philip II – was published by Christopher Plantin (1520–89). It comprises eight volumes with parallel texts in Hebrew, Greek, Chaldean and Latin translations and was a great achievement by the Plantin firm. It took five years, between 1568 and 1573, to produce and it was printed in 1200 copies on four different kinds of paper and 12 copies on vellum. Several of the 1200 copies were however lost at sea on route from the Netherlands to Spain (Bekka p. 16). The chief editor of the Polyglot and also acting as the Philip’s orthodox supervisor was the polymath Benito Arias Montano (1527-98) and among his chief assistants were Plantin’s son-in-law and successor Franciscus Raphelengius and several other orientalists. Theologians at the University of Louvain assisted by comparing numerous manuscripts and printed editions to determine what the correct text for the Bible should be. Because of it its high production costs, its demands on typographical expertise, its concentration of scholarly and editorial skills it is considered one of the greatest single printing enterprises of the sixteenth century. Volume 1-4 contain the Old Testament, volume 5 the New Testament and volume 6-8 supplements.The large library of the Carthusian monastry at Buxheim ”...zu Beginn des 16. Jahrhunderts bereits zu den bedeutendsten Klosterbibliotheken Europas...” was sold at auctions in 1883-84, the present volume coming from a complete set of the library.