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PSALTER, polyglot – Psalterium Hebraeum, Graecum, Arabicum, & Chaldaeum. Genoa: by Pietro Paolo Porro, 1516.
The first polyglot edition of any part of the Bible, and only the second book printed in Arabic; this copy presented by the editor Agostino Giustiniani to Pietro of Lucca, canon regular of the San Terenzio Lateran congregation, at the request of Battista, Doctor of Law in Genoa. Giustiniani’s commentary for Psalm 19 includes a long note on Christopher Columbus and American discoveries. The polyglot text in 8 parallel columns gives the Hebrew, a literal Latin translation, the Vulgate Latin, the Greek Septuagint, the Arabic, the Chaldee (Aramaic), a literal Latin translation from the Chaldee, and the scholia. This handsome psalter is the only publication of Genoa’s only early 16th-century press. Darlow & Moule, vol. 2, p.1.
Quarto (323 x 233mm). Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and Roman types. Title printed in red and black within a woodcut arabesque border; opening headings printed in red; woodcut floriated initials; printer's woodcut device (title strengthened in the inside margin, some dampstaining, some leaves yellowed; light marginal worming in the first and last leaves; the last leaf almost detached but holding). Early 19th-century half vellum (extremities rubbed; light worming); blue leather-backed modern clamshell case. Provenance: Pietro of Lucca of San Terenzio (title inscription recording the gift from Battista of Genoa via Agostino Giustiniani); Church of San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna (title inscription); some marginalia in an early hand; Baron Horace de Landau (1824-1903; bookplate, numbered “4904”).
The first polyglot edition of any part of the Bible, and only the second book printed in Arabic; this copy presented by the editor Agostino Giustiniani to Pietro of Lucca, canon regular of the San Terenzio Lateran congregation, at the request of Battista, Doctor of Law in Genoa. Giustiniani’s commentary for Psalm 19 includes a long note on Christopher Columbus and American discoveries. The polyglot text in 8 parallel columns gives the Hebrew, a literal Latin translation, the Vulgate Latin, the Greek Septuagint, the Arabic, the Chaldee (Aramaic), a literal Latin translation from the Chaldee, and the scholia. This handsome psalter is the only publication of Genoa’s only early 16th-century press. Darlow & Moule, vol. 2, p.1.
Quarto (323 x 233mm). Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and Roman types. Title printed in red and black within a woodcut arabesque border; opening headings printed in red; woodcut floriated initials; printer's woodcut device (title strengthened in the inside margin, some dampstaining, some leaves yellowed; light marginal worming in the first and last leaves; the last leaf almost detached but holding). Early 19th-century half vellum (extremities rubbed; light worming); blue leather-backed modern clamshell case. Provenance: Pietro of Lucca of San Terenzio (title inscription recording the gift from Battista of Genoa via Agostino Giustiniani); Church of San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna (title inscription); some marginalia in an early hand; Baron Horace de Landau (1824-1903; bookplate, numbered “4904”).