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Auction archive: Lot number 152

The Plantin Polyglot Bible Biblia Sacra

Valuable Books and Manuscripts
11 Jul 2018 - 11 Jul 2018
Estimate
£400,000 - £600,000
ca. US$528,310 - US$792,466
Price realised:
£488,750
ca. US$645,529
Auction archive: Lot number 152

The Plantin Polyglot Bible Biblia Sacra

Valuable Books and Manuscripts
11 Jul 2018 - 11 Jul 2018
Estimate
£400,000 - £600,000
ca. US$528,310 - US$792,466
Price realised:
£488,750
ca. US$645,529
Beschreibung:

The Plantin Polyglot Bible Biblia Sacra Hebraice, Chaldaice, Graece, & Latine . Edited by Benedictus Arias Montanus (1527-98). Antwerp: Christopher Plantin, 1569-72. A monument of Biblical scholarship and a masterpiece of Renaissance book production. One of only 13 copies printed on vellum expressly for King Philip II of Spain, the only copy in private hands. Only ten other sets survive today, seven in Spain and one each in London, Turin and the Vatican, and only one incomplete set has been sold in two centuries. A Great Enterprise From its conception, the Plantin Polyglot Bible was a grand project: to produce the finest Bible in all Christendom, published under royal patronage of Philip II, King of Spain and Lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands; it is therefore also known as the Biblia Regia. Even on the basis of advance sheets circulated at the Frankfurt book fair, it was celebrated by contemporaries for its importance and beauty, and European potentates vied to be associated with so ambitious and prestigious a project. The Plantin Polyglot Bible is the second great Polyglot Bible. The Complutensian Polyglot Bible, printed at Alcalà in 1514-17, provided the foundation for the Plantin Polyglot, and a team of noted scholars under the editorship of the renowned Spanish orientalist Benedictus Arias Montanus scoured libraries across Europe for additional sources in order to establish the most up-to-date and reliable texts. Among the printed texts used were Bomberg’s Venice edition of the Hebrew, the Aldine edition of the Greek, and Widmanstädt’s edition of the Syriac text, and manuscripts included those at Alcalà consulted for the Complutensian Polyglot and at the Vatican. Joining the Biblical texts were additional works, brought together as an ‘Apparatus Sacra’, consisting of grammars, dictionaries, thesauri and a geography of the Holy Land. Plantin devoted 5 years, up to 4 presses and 40 workmen to print the Bible. He had been acquiring types from the best type-cutters and designers of the day – Guillaume Le Bé and Cornelis van Bomberghen for Hebrew and Robert Granjon for Greek and Syriac – and he ordered four varieties of the finest paper to print the 1200 paper copies. In addition, Philip II ordered 13 copies on vellum for his personal use. Printing the Bible commenced in 1568 and by the summer of 1572 all but two volumes of the Apparatus Sacra (the third volume, containing the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, had been printed in 1571) and the privileges were complete. A hiatus then ensued, owing in part to a lack of ready cash but also to the political situation: an uprising in Zeeland against Spanish rule interrupted the supply of vellum. The final two volumes of the Apparatus and the privileges were printed later that year, only ever on paper. Royal Copies of a Royal Bible Philip II commissioned, at great expense, 13 special copies printed on vellum for his personal use and gift. Each set comprised 6 volumes of Biblical text (volumes 1-5, 7 [parts 1-2]) and two volumes of Apparatus proper (volumes 6 and 8 and part 3 of volume 7). Given the sheer weight of this luxurious material, the six vellum volumes were bound into 11 and joined subsequently, if at all, by volumes 6 and 8 of Apparatus on paper. Plantin’s records indicate that the sets of 11 vellum volumes without the Apparatus were considered a discrete whole: the cost of binding five sets sent to Philip II at the Royal Palace in December 1572 specifies 11, not 13, volumes. Early recipients of a vellum copy were the Pope (the first 5 volumes only), followed by the Duke of Alba and the Duke of Savoy. The desirability of a vellum copy was such that the Duke of Bavaria offered to pay Plantin to have one printed for himself, an offer Plantin had to decline. Van Praet states that the five sets sent to Philip in 1572 remained at the Escorial until sometime before 1789, when two copies were gifted [by Charles III] to his son, the Prince of Asturias (the future K

Auction archive: Lot number 152
Auction:
Datum:
11 Jul 2018 - 11 Jul 2018
Auction house:
Christie's
London
Beschreibung:

The Plantin Polyglot Bible Biblia Sacra Hebraice, Chaldaice, Graece, & Latine . Edited by Benedictus Arias Montanus (1527-98). Antwerp: Christopher Plantin, 1569-72. A monument of Biblical scholarship and a masterpiece of Renaissance book production. One of only 13 copies printed on vellum expressly for King Philip II of Spain, the only copy in private hands. Only ten other sets survive today, seven in Spain and one each in London, Turin and the Vatican, and only one incomplete set has been sold in two centuries. A Great Enterprise From its conception, the Plantin Polyglot Bible was a grand project: to produce the finest Bible in all Christendom, published under royal patronage of Philip II, King of Spain and Lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands; it is therefore also known as the Biblia Regia. Even on the basis of advance sheets circulated at the Frankfurt book fair, it was celebrated by contemporaries for its importance and beauty, and European potentates vied to be associated with so ambitious and prestigious a project. The Plantin Polyglot Bible is the second great Polyglot Bible. The Complutensian Polyglot Bible, printed at Alcalà in 1514-17, provided the foundation for the Plantin Polyglot, and a team of noted scholars under the editorship of the renowned Spanish orientalist Benedictus Arias Montanus scoured libraries across Europe for additional sources in order to establish the most up-to-date and reliable texts. Among the printed texts used were Bomberg’s Venice edition of the Hebrew, the Aldine edition of the Greek, and Widmanstädt’s edition of the Syriac text, and manuscripts included those at Alcalà consulted for the Complutensian Polyglot and at the Vatican. Joining the Biblical texts were additional works, brought together as an ‘Apparatus Sacra’, consisting of grammars, dictionaries, thesauri and a geography of the Holy Land. Plantin devoted 5 years, up to 4 presses and 40 workmen to print the Bible. He had been acquiring types from the best type-cutters and designers of the day – Guillaume Le Bé and Cornelis van Bomberghen for Hebrew and Robert Granjon for Greek and Syriac – and he ordered four varieties of the finest paper to print the 1200 paper copies. In addition, Philip II ordered 13 copies on vellum for his personal use. Printing the Bible commenced in 1568 and by the summer of 1572 all but two volumes of the Apparatus Sacra (the third volume, containing the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, had been printed in 1571) and the privileges were complete. A hiatus then ensued, owing in part to a lack of ready cash but also to the political situation: an uprising in Zeeland against Spanish rule interrupted the supply of vellum. The final two volumes of the Apparatus and the privileges were printed later that year, only ever on paper. Royal Copies of a Royal Bible Philip II commissioned, at great expense, 13 special copies printed on vellum for his personal use and gift. Each set comprised 6 volumes of Biblical text (volumes 1-5, 7 [parts 1-2]) and two volumes of Apparatus proper (volumes 6 and 8 and part 3 of volume 7). Given the sheer weight of this luxurious material, the six vellum volumes were bound into 11 and joined subsequently, if at all, by volumes 6 and 8 of Apparatus on paper. Plantin’s records indicate that the sets of 11 vellum volumes without the Apparatus were considered a discrete whole: the cost of binding five sets sent to Philip II at the Royal Palace in December 1572 specifies 11, not 13, volumes. Early recipients of a vellum copy were the Pope (the first 5 volumes only), followed by the Duke of Alba and the Duke of Savoy. The desirability of a vellum copy was such that the Duke of Bavaria offered to pay Plantin to have one printed for himself, an offer Plantin had to decline. Van Praet states that the five sets sent to Philip in 1572 remained at the Escorial until sometime before 1789, when two copies were gifted [by Charles III] to his son, the Prince of Asturias (the future K

Auction archive: Lot number 152
Auction:
Datum:
11 Jul 2018 - 11 Jul 2018
Auction house:
Christie's
London
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