Beschreibung:

Bible. Old Testament—Prophets. [Biblia Sacra Hebraice, Chaldaice, Graece et Latine] Sacrorum Bibliorum tomus quartus [sub-title:] Prophetae posteriores [also in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic] (ed. Benito Arias Montanus [1527–1598]). Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 23 June 1570
The Plantin Bible, the second polyglot Bible, was conceived in eight volumes (six of Biblical text and two volumes of apparatus) and printed at Antwerp by Christophe Plantin between 1568 and 1573. The edition comprised 1,200 sets on four different qualities of paper, and thirteen sets on vellum.
The chief editor of the Polyglot was the polymath Benito Arias Montano; among his chief assistants was Plantin’s son-in-law and successor, Franciscus Raphelengius. Plantin’s magnum opus, the Polyglot is properly considered to be the greatest single printing enterprise of the sixteenth century, in terms of its production costs, its demands on typographical expertise, and its concentration of scholarly and editorial skills. From Plantin’s business records and correspondence, we are well informed in many aspects of the production of the Polyglot. The paper issues comprised Royal paper from Troyes (960 copies), Royal paper from Lyon (200 copies), Imperial paper from Germany (30 copies), Imperial paper from Italy, probably Fabriano (10 copies). Vellum copies were never part of the trade distribution; even in the 1570s, they were literally unobtainable. The Duke of Bavaria tried to acquire one from Plantin, but the latter was able to oblige him only with a copy of the best paper issue. Likewise, the copy presented to William of Orange is a paper copy, and the three copies specially bound in Paris for Cardinal Granvelle were all on paper.
The thirteen copies on vellum were reserved for Philip II’s personal use and distribution. Eleven sets have survived complete or substantially intact: three in El Escorial; three in Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid; one in Biblioteca de Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo; one in Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana; one in Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, Turin; one in the British Library; and one unlocated (sold by Christie’s, London, 11 July 2018, lot 152, £488,750). The two remaining sets are said to have been gifted to the Dominican priory of San Esteban in Salamanca (reputedly looted by Napoleon’s troops in 1809) and the Royal Library of Philip II in Brussels for the Collegium Trilingue in Louvain (reputedly “disappeared during the revolutionary disturbances of 1797,” according to Colin Clair’s Christopher Plantin [London, 1960], p. 85).
The early shelfmarks written in this copy at the foot of the first page of each volume (“5.80-n.o 5” and “5.80-n.o 6”) prove that in their former bindings they were separately bound, and their spine-numbering (5 and 6) implies that the first volume in the series was already lacking. These two volumes are therefore associated with a partial set on vellum, lacking volumes 1, 6, and 8, which appeared on the market in 1811 with the Parisian bookseller, Charles Chardin (1742–1826), in bindings with the royal arms. Chardin’s copy is next recorded with the French booksellers Treuttel and Würtz, who in May 1816 brought it to England, and, having failed to sell it (1000 guineas were asked), offered it (anonymously) at Sotheby’s on 12 June 1817. 2 It passed afterwards, by now rebound in blue morocco by the Hering brothers, through the libraries of the Earl of Ashburnham and Charles Fairfax Murray, to the Marquesses of Bute, and was sold by Christie’s in London, 15 March 1995.
The Bute set was subsequently broken; four of its volumes have since returned to the market:
Volume II (bound in 2 parts): Kestenbaum & Co., Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art, the property of various owners, New York, 22 June 1999, lot 325. Sold for $27,000 to an unidentified purchaser.
Volume III (bound in 2 parts): Kestenbaum & Co., Hebrew Printed Books & Manuscripts from the Rare Book Room of the Jews’ College Library, London, the third portion, New York, 30 March 2004, lot 51. Cold for $47,000 to an unidentified purchaser.
Volume IV (bound in 2 parts): the volume offered here.
Volume V (bound in 2 parts): Antiquariat Bibermühle AG (Heribert Tenschert), Ramsen, Switzerland, Katalog 48: Biblia Sacra, Die Bibel vom 13. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert in ausgewählten Exemplaren (2004), item 40A (CHF 225,000).
Volume IV of the rare vellum issue of the Plantin Polyglot Bible
Volume IV only, bound in 2, folio (410 x 286 mm). printed on vellum. Roman, Hebrew, Greek, and italic types, lines variable, mostly in double columns. collation: A–Z⁶, a–o⁶ p–q⁸ r-z⁶, Aa–Zz⁶, AA–GG⁶ HH⁴, a–m⁶: 538 leaves (m6 blank; the paper issues include two preliminary leaves [a Latin half-title and a frontispiece] not present here). Title within architectonic woodcut border, historiated woodcut initials.
binding: Early nineteenth-century English crushed blue morocco (438 x 305 mm), by Hering, spines gilt in 7 compartments, vellum endleaves, gilt edges. (Extremities rubbed with some minor repair, some fading.)
provenance: Philip II of Spain (vellum issue printed for his use and distribution) — ink shelfmarks “5.80- n.o 5” and “5.80-n.o 6” (unidentified) — probably Charles Chardin (1742–ca. 1827; Pierre-FrançoisJean-Baptiste Leblanc, Catalogue de livres précieux, manuscrits et imprimés sur peauvélin, du cabinet de M.**. Troisième partie. Imprimés sur vélin, Paris, 4 February 1811, p. 157 lot 2) — Treuttel & Würtz, Strasbourg and Paris (anonymous Treuttel and Würtz sale of stock: Sotheby’s, London, 12–24 June 1817, lot 150), purchased by — Thomas Thorpe, London (£225 15s) — Bertram Ashburnham, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797–1878; Sotheby’s, London, 25 June–3 July 1897, lot 429), purchased by — Charles Fairfax Murray (1849–1919; [£79]; Christie’s, London, 10–12 December 1917, lot 68), purchased by — Harvey (£140) — John Crichton-Stuart, 6th Marquess of Bute (1933–1993; Christie’s, London, 15 March 1995, lot 234), purchased by — unidentified owner (£29,000) — Sotheby's, New York, 15 December 1998, lot 21 (these two volumes only). acquisition: Purchased at Sotheby's through E. K. Schreiber. 
references: NB 3789; USTC 401394; Belgica typographica 436; Voet, The Plantin Press, 1555–1589, pp. 280–315, no. 644, IV; Van Praet (1822), pp. 1–5 no. 1; Van Praet (1824), p. 4; Darlow-Moule 1422; Dibdin, Bibliographical Decameron, II, p. 154; Davies, Catalogue of a Collection of Early German Books in the Library of C. Fairfax Murray, no. 61.