Beschreibung:

polyglot. Biblia sacra polyglotta, complectentia textus originales hebraicum... chaldaicum, graecum; versionumque antiquarum samaritanae, graecae... chaldaicae, syriacae, arabicae, aethiopicae, persicae, vulg. lat. quicquid comparari poterat..., 6 vol., edited by Brian Walton, engraved frontispiece portrait of Walton by Lombart, engraved title in an architectural setting by Wenceslaus Hollar after Webb, additional printed title in red and black, loyal preface with slight mention of Oliver Cromwell, 6 engraved maps and plates by Hollar (5 double-page and 1 single) and woodcuts of coins and illustrations in the text, a variety of types for different languages, vol. II-V half-titles only, . I frontispiece laid down, engraved title with small tear repaired, without the 2ff. dedication to Charles II found in some copies, lacks D1 & D2 (D1 Index and D2 blank), sig. 2Z a few slight ink marks, vol. II some slight staining small part of corner in last sig., vol. IV 2R3 at end corner torn away not affecting text, lacks 3E4 (blank) at end, vol. VI lacks half-title, some slight creasing in places, some small rust or burn marks, a few small tears to edges, inner hinges strengthened, vol. I presentation label to Rev. Charles Parsons Reichel of Dublin on upper cover, [Darlow & Moule 1446; Wing B2797], Thomas Roycroft, 1657 [with] Castell (Edmund) Lexicon heptaglotton, engraved frontispiece by Faithorne, title in red and black, frontispiece a little creased, title slightly soiled, CA3 tear in lower margin, [Wing C1225], Thomas Roycroft, 1669 [with] Walton (Brian) Biblicus apparatus, chronologico-topographico-philologicus, half-title, lower margins water-stained throughout, Zurich, Ex Typographeo Bodmeriano, 1673, together 7 vol., slightly browned, Charles Parsons Reichel's copy with his bookplates on front pastedowns, also signature in vol. VII of "T. Winfield" on fly-leaf, contemporary calf, rubbed and repaired in places, all but the last uniform, all uniformly rebacked in modern calf, gilt, folio. *** The London Polyglot, the fourth and last of the great Polyglot Bibles with for the first time texts in Ethiopic and Persian. "This is the most accurate and best-equipped of the great polyglots." - Darlow & Moule. was a well known royalist and was ejected as minister of St. Martin Orgar in the City of London by members of his congregation appealing to parliament during the Civil War. He was charged as a delinquent and after the fall of Oxford compounded for his property and was fined a tenth of its value. When he mooted the idea of a new polyglot version of the bible he received little support from the government of the Lord Protector, though Cromwell waived the duty on the paper imported for which he was thanked handsomely in the original preface. "Walton's project received the approbation of Archbishop James Ussher and the distinguished parliamentarian, jurist and oriental scholar John Selden. The services of many eminent scholars at both universities were retained. Most of those who made their services available were , though a few had conformed. to the change of regime. Expertise, rather than political or religious allegiance, was the key criterion for involvement. Volumes 1-4 contained the Old Testament and Apocrypha, volume 5 the New Testament and volume 6 various critical appendices. Nine languages are represented in the work, although no single book of the Bible appears in more than eight versions. The London represented the apogee of Renaissance biblical productions. The work was highly regarded in Europe in intellectual theological circles throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Walton's pivotal role in its production was recognized and praised by his contemporaries, while his learned prolegomena to the work drew compliments into the nineteenth century. The Dictionary of National Biography regarded him as having only a tolerable knowledge of biblical and oriental languages. It would be more accurate to describe him as a c