A Masterpiece of Typography and Scholarship -PMM 69

Bible, Greek New Testament. Estienne, Robert, editor and printer (1503-1559)

ΤΗΣ ΚΑΙΝΗΣ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗΣ ΑΠΑΝΤΑ. ΕΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΟΝ Κατα Ματθαιον. Κατα Μαρκον. Κατα Λουκαν. Κατα Ιωαννην. ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΝ. Nouum Iesu Christi D.N. Testamentum. Ex Bibliotheca Regia.

Paris: Robert Estienne, 15 June, 1550

$18,000

Folio: 32 x 21.5 cm. *8, **8, a-q8, r6; A-M8, N6

Bound in 17th century paneled calf, rebacked. The boards are framed by a double gold fillet. The large central compartments are also ruled in gold and feature elaborate gold ornaments at the corners. This copy is in excellent condition with wide margins and clean, bright leaves and only a few minor marginal stains and blemishes. With the 18th century engraved bookplate of the English Bible critic David Durell (1728-1775), who served as president of Hertford College, Oxford.

The text of this magnificent edition is set in Claude Garamond's 'grecs du roi' Greek type in three sizes. Estienne's basilisk device appears on both the main and divisional title. The famous "Noli altum sapere" device (Schreiber 10) appears on the verso of the final leaf. "The sumptuous 'Editio Regia', the third and most important Estienne edition of the Greek New Testament to contain a critical apparatus, recording variant readings from fifteen manuscripts, including the famous Codex Bezae, first used here. The text of this edition became standard for over two centuries, especially in England; it served as the basis for the English translation prepared by William Whittingham and his fellow Protestant refugees from England, the first English version to contain variant readings in the margins (Geneva 1557)." See B.M. Metzger, The Text of The New Testament, 104 f.

"Robert Estienne used Erasmus' 'editio princeps' of the Greek text (1516) as the basis of his own Greek New Testament. Whereas Erasmus' first edition was a hasty production, for which Erasmus' relied on very few Greek manuscripts, Estienne's New Testament benefited from a further quarter century of scholarship and a greater number of manuscripts –fifteen different Greek manuscripts are cited in the critical apparatus of Estienne's edition. This edition became influential as a chief witness for the Textus Receptus (the received standard text) that came to dominate New Testament studies for more than 300 years. This Textus Receptus is the basis for all the translations in the churches of the Reformation, including the King James Version."(EB)

PMM 69; Adams B-1661; Schreiber, The Estiennes, 105; Darlow & Moule 4622. Mortimer I, # 78; Renouard p. 75, #1; Scholderer, Greek Printing Types, p.10