BIBLE IN LATIN | Bible in Latin. Venice: Nicolaus Jenson, 1476

Property from the Collection of Dr. Charles Caldwell Ryrie

BIBLE IN LATIN

Bible in Latin. Venice: Nicolaus Jenson, 1476

Chancery folio (293 × 190 mm). Collation: a-z & 'con rum' A-H¹⁰ (Old Testament, a1 and H10 blanks); I-L¹⁰ M¹² N-P¹⁰ Q¹² (New Testament, Q12v colophon: 'Biblia impressa Venetijs opera atque impensa Nicolai Ienson Gallici. M.cccc.lxxvj.'); R-T¹⁰ U-X⁸ (Interpretationes nominum hebraicorum, X8r quire register, verso blank): 467 of 470 leaves, lacking the blank leaves a1 and H10, and the final leaf, with quire register. 2 columns, 52 lines and headline, initial spaces (Italian rubrication, red and blue). Leaf C10 (Ezekiel ch. 38) with a triangular section removed at outer margin, with text loss. Scattered early lection notes in pale brown ink, thus at Apocalypse ch. 4: “In Refectorio.” Eighteenth-century red sheep gilt, spine richly gilt, marbled endleaves; scratches and abrasions on both covers. 

Jenson’s first printing of the Vulgate Bible. His copy text was the 1475 Venice edition of Franciscus Renner (Goff B-541), and so included all the additional prologues first appearing in that edition, as well as the Interpretationes nominum Hebraicorum, a Biblical apparatus that became a near-standard Vulgate supplement in thirteenth-century Paris Bibles.

LITERATURE:

Formatting the Word of God 11.2; Goff B-547; GW 4222; BMC V 176 (IB.16965); BSB-Ink B-424; Bod-inc B-256

PROVENANCE:

Charles-Pierre-Joseph Le Candèle, Baron de Gyseghem (engraved bookplate) — Duke of Arenberg, Schloss Nordkirchen (shelf-mark)