Sacra Biblia : ad LXX interpretum fidem diligentissime tralata.

Accession number: 
PML 199326
Uniform title: 
Bible. Old Testament. Latin. 1526.
Published: 
Basileæ : Per Andream Cratandrum, Anno M.D. XXVI [August 1526]
Credit: 
Purchased on the T. Kimball Brooker Foundation Book Purchase Fund in honor of the Morgan's Centennial.
Description: 
[6], 443, [1] leaves : illustrations ; 23 cm (4to)
Notes: 

"Cum gratia & priuilegio Cæsareo."
Woodcut printer's device on title page.
Colophon on verso of leaf 443: "Basileæ, per Andream Cratandrvm cvm privilegio Cæsareo excvsvm, mense avgvsto, anno M.D. XXVI."
The Old Testament in Latin, including the Apocrypha.
"The first separate edition of a Latin translation of the Greek Septuagint ... In his preface Cratander does not give the name of the translator", cf. Historical catalogue of the printed editions of Holy Scripture in the Library of the British and Foreign Bible Society, note after no. 6106.
Includes: "Sacrarvm literarvm stvdiosis, Andreas Cratander felicitatem", dated "XIII. Augusti, Anno M.D. XXVI"; "De avthoritate LXX interpretvm"; "Elenchvs Librorvm Veteris Testamenti hoc opere contenti"; at end: "De libris Vtrivsq[ue] Testamenti, partim reiectis, aut non sine contradictione admissis, partim apocryphis, ex Athanasio, tametsi mihi suspectus est titulus, Erasmo Roterdamo interp."
Preliminaries include printer's preface and an essay "De authoritate LXX. interpretum"; on leaf 443, "De libris utriusque Testamenti, partim reiectis ... ex Athanasio ... Erasmo Roterodamo interp." With marginal references in the text. Text includes 3 Maccabees.
Signatures: α⁶ a-z⁴ A-Z⁴ aa-zz⁴ Aa-Zz⁴ AA-TT⁴: 450 leaves.
Printed in double column, solid paragraph form, without verse nos. Title centered at top of page. Chapter title centered in column. References in both margins. Woodcut illustration at the beginning of Genesis. Woodcut initials over 9 lines at the beginning of books, bold-type initials over 3 lines at the beginning of chapters.

Binding: 
Parisian dark brown morocco gilt (232 x 152 mm), circa 1540, possibly by Étienne Roffet, upper cover with "BIBLIA|AD FIDEM|LXX INTER|PRETVM TRALATA" in lapidary capitals within a large cartouche composed of solid leafy arabesques and fleurons, outer frame of blind and gilt fillets, spine with small gilt fleuron in compartments, stubs from 4 pairs of blue silk ties, edges gilt, in a modern black cloth box.
Inscriptions/Markings: 

Initials and capital letters finely illuminated in gilt and colours, ruled in red (Woodcut device on TT4 cut out and laid down on a blank leaf supplied at end).

Variant Title: 

Ad LXX interpretum fidem diligentissime tralata

Provenance: 
William Beckford (1760-1844), his sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 4 July 1882, lot 879 ("beautiful copy, with the numerous Initials and Capital Letters exquisitely illuminated in gold and colours, old black morocco, covered with gold tooling in the Grolier style..."); bought by Léon Techener, Paris (£18 10s); Catalogue de livres précieux manuscrits et imprimés provenant la bibliothèque particulière de M. Léon Techener, libraire à Paris, Paris, 10-14 May 1887, lot 1; Robert Hoe (1839-1909), Anderson Galleries, Catalogue of the library of Robert Hoe of New York. Part II: A to K, New York, 8-12 January 1912, lot 661; Librairie Théophile Belin, Paris, Livres des XVe et XVIe siècles dans leurs reliures originales (Paris 1914), item 34 and pl. 19; Laure Eugénie (née Pillet) Belin, widow of Pierre-Victor-Théophile Belin (1851-1921), sale, Bibliothèque de Mme Th. Belin, Paris, 19-20 February 1936, lot 30 and Pl. 16. acquisition: Purchased in 1989 from Martin Breslauer Inc., New York; purchased by: T. Kimball Brooker, his sale: Sotheby's (London), Bibliotheca Brookeriana V, 10 Dec. 2024, lot 1025.
Catalog Link: 
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Classification: 
Binding Collection
Department: 
Printed Books