Bible | New Testament, Sedan, 1622-1623, miniature format, contemporary vellum

Bible. New Testament. French

A miniature volume containing the Protestant version of the New Testament and the Metrical Psalms in French, comprising:

Le Nouveau Testament, c'est a dire, la nouvelle Alliance de nostre Seigneur Iesus Christ. Le tout reveu & conferé sur les textes grecs, par les Pasteurs & Professeurs de l'Eglise de Geneve. Sedan: Jean Jannon, (2 May) 1622Les Pseames de David mis en rime Françoise par Clement Marot & Theodore de Beze. Sedan: Jean Jannon, 1623, small woodcuts in calendar, typeset music

2 works in one volume, 32mo (111 x 56mm.), woodcut printer's device on title-pages, contemporary vellum, small stains on Gg3-4 with slight loss of text, occasional light damp-staining, a few leaves becoming loose, a few page edges chipped, some printed marginalia slightly shaved, upper hinge broken, upper joint cracked

An uncommon miniature French New Testament. Jannon, a printer and punch-cutter who had worked for the Estiennes in Paris, was appointed by the Duc de Bouillon to set up a press in the principality of Sedan, a mostly Protestant town, as official printer to the Academy. Jannon also printed a miniature Greek New Testament in 1628.

This version of the French Geneva text first appeared in Geneva in 1588 (Darlow & Moule 3736).

LITERATURE

USTC 6808672 (listing one copy, in Leiden) & 6808774 (listing 3 copies); not in Darlow & Moule

PROVENANCE

Nic. Hare, price 2s-6d, early inscription on flyleaf; Francis P. Warne, inscription on flyleaf dated 20 August 1873 and the price 2s