Beschreibung:

Bible, in Latin Biblia Latina. Paris: Ulrich Gering, Martin Crantz and Michael Friburger, [between 22 July 1476 and 21 July 1477]. First and only Latin Bible printed in France, printed at the first press established there. Paraphrases or compilations of Biblical texts in French translation had appeared earlier, printed at Lyons, but this is the earliest edition of St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, the textus receptus of the Bible, to appear in France. As virtually all incunable Latin Bibles, it derives from the Gutenberg Bible printed at Mainz c.1455; specifically, it reprints the 1462 Bible, the second printed at Mainz, by Fust and Schoeffer, which documentary evidence shows was marketed in Paris by Fust. The edition was joined by a supplemental text, the Interpretation of Hebrew Names, which is not present here. Those 3 quires form a separate entity: they are the only quires with printed signatures and one copy at the Bibliothèque nationale de France attests to its independent survival. France's prototypographers Gering, Crantz and Friburger, all natives of the Upper Rhine valley, established a press at Paris in 1470 on the premises of the Sorbonne at the behest of two former rectors, Guillaume Fichet and Johann Heynlin. In about 1476 the press moved to new premises in the rue St. Jacques at the sign of the Soleil d'Or; the Bible is the first to name the new address. HC 3058; GW 4225; BMC VIII 8; CIBN B-379; Bod-inc. B-259; ISTC ib00550000. 2 volumes, royal folio (364 x 254mm). 243 (of 244, without first blank) and 239 (of 268, without first blank and 3 quires of Interpretationes) leaves. Printed in red and black, contemporary French rubrication, major initials in interlocking red and blue, smaller initials in red or blue, yellow capital strokes; type pages ruled in red probably in the 18th century. (A few small wormholes affecting some letters at beginning and end of each volume, faint spotting in a few leaves, light dampstain, usually at extreme margin, in last 2-3 quires of each volume, occasional light smudge or dust-soiling, last leaf laid down.) 18th-century blue morocco gilt, marble endpapers and edges; modern morocco-backed boxes. Provenance: a few marginal annotations – ?ML (monogram in red and blue on first page of each volume, an ‘L’ in opening initial of vol. II, written at the time of/by the rubricator) – Toulouse, Jesuit college (16th-century inscription washed from first page, ?stamp excised from first page of each volume repaired with an 18/19th-century booklabel of L. Valentin, priest, 17th-century ms. headlines giving Book name (occasionally trimmed) – Avignon, St-Charles of the Cross seminary (18th-century booklabel).