[François VATABLE]
[BIBLE HEBRAIQUE] [ESTIENNE] Daniel & Esdras [& Nehemiah] (Daniel, Livre de Néhémie, Esdras)
Robert Estienne, Paris 1546, in-16 (7x11,5cm), a-p8 : [120 f.], relié.
Daniel & Esdras [& Nehemiah] [BIBLE IN HEBREW] [ESTIENNE]
Robert Estienne, Paris 1546, 16°(7x11,5cm), a volume in brown morocco.First 16° edition in Hebrew by Robert Estienne. This pocket edition was printed in 17 volumes between 1544 and 1546, after the success of the four-volume quarto edition printed from 1539 to 1544. Each individual volume could be acquired separately and considered complete in itself. Printer's woodcut device on each title page with book titles set within woodcut cartouche head-pieces. Only the title page is in Latin-Hebrew.
"This little edition, said to be very accurate, is a true typographical jewel, and perhaps the most beautiful one ever printed in the Hebrew language.” “Cette petite édition que l'on dit fort exacte, est vraiment un bijou typographique, et peut-être ce qui a jamais été imprimé de plus beau en langue hébraïque" (A. A. Renouard, Annales de l'imprimerie des Estienne)
Brown morocco later binding (1590-1615), smooth spine with gilt fillets, double gilt borders on covers, all edges gilt. Binding slightly rubbed, wormholes affecting a few letters at the end of the volume.
This Book of Daniel edition by François Vatable is based on the Hebrew Soncino princeps edition published in 1488. The text in Hebrew follows the Masoretic tradition and presents diacritics that facilitate its vocalization.
Talented scholar François Vatable (1495-1547) procured in his early years new Latin translations and editions of Aristotle as an assistant to Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples. After founding the Collège de France in 1530, King Francis I appointed him chair of Hebrew studies. As a Royal lecturer he actively participated ten years later in a Hebrew edition of the Books of the Bible with Robert Estienne (1503-1559) – printer to the King in Latin and Hebrew.
This edition was certainly intended for scholarly use, given its small format sold in separate individual volumes, published after a first lavish quarto edition. The presence of numerous contemporary marginal notes further indicates its educational purpose, as is the numbering of lines of several pages in some of our volumes.
A very beautiful and scarce collaborative work by two of the greatest figures of Parisian humanist scholarship – a fine example of the renewed interest in classical texts.
Provenance: library of Charles John Dimsdale (1801-1872), fifth baron of the Russian Empire, with his bookplate on each pastedown endpaper.
1 000 €
Réf : 82822
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