Leaf from the London Polyglot Bible (O.T), 1655

Item — Box: 2, Folder: 22

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

Sold as Otto F. Ege's Original Leaves from Famous Bibles: Nine Centuries, 1121-1935 A.D. Cleveland: Otto Ege, circa 1950, this collection consists of 37 original Bible leaves in mattes with descriptive labels. Three items are manuscript pages, while an additional 34 are printed. The leaves range in age from circa 1200 to 1935. During the years 1938-1950, Ege published portfolios under this title with 37, 50 and 60 leaves.

For preservation reasons, the leaves have been separated from their mattes, and enclosed in mylar. However, each matte and descriptive label has been retained with its original leaf where possible.

The descriptions consist mostly of transcriptions of the labels written by Ege.

Dates

Creation: 1655

Creator

From the Collection: Ege, Otto F. (Compiler, Person)
From the Collection: Duschnes, Philip C. (Compiler, Person)

Language of Materials

From the Collection:

Algonquin, Arabic, Armenian, Dutch, English, German, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Syriac

Biographical / Historical

LONDINI. Imprimebat Thomas Roycroft

The fourth and most accurate of the great polyglots edited by Dr. Brain Walton. One of the first English books to be sold by subscription (£10). Nine hundred orders were received during the first two months. This leaf from the Old Testament contains the text in Hebrew; Latin Vulgate; the Greek Septuangint; the Chaldee Parapharse; the Syriac and Arabic versions, each with a Latin translation. The type characters for the nine languages used in this Bible were all of English make. It was the typographical achievement of the century, and for it Charles II made Roycroft the “King’s Printer of Oriental languages.”

(Darlow and Moule 1446)