[Bible] Quincuplex Psalterium, [Paris], Estienne, 1513, folio, nineteenth-century leather gilt

Bible. Psalter. Polyglot

Secunda emissio. Quincuplex psalterium. Gallicum. Rhomanum. Hebraicum. Vetus. Conciliatum... [edited by Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples]. [Paris]: (Henri Estienne, 13 June 1513)

folio (301 x 198mm.), title within woodcut border, woodcut initials and decorative line fillers, printed in red and black, nineteenth-century gilt leather binding, first few quires stained and with wormhole, other light staining

Second edition of Estienne's elegantly printed Psalter, containing five Latin versions of the Psalms, the first three in parallel columns verse by verse followed by a commmentary, and the last two in parallel columns in verse couplets. It was first printed in 1509.

The first three Latin versions are all ascribed to Jerome; the Gallican was translated from the Greek Septuagint in the 380s, and the Hebraicum from the Hebrew in the 390s. The final two versions, the Vetus ("old") dates from the mid-fourth century and predates Jerome, and the Conciliatum ("united") was Lefèvre's own version of the text.

LITERATURE:

Darlow & Moule 6095; Mortimer, Harvard French 62; Renouard, Estienne 13/1; USTC 144203

PROVENANCE:

George Gregory of Bath, bookseller's label on inside front cover; "Bought of M.S. 1872 £8", inscription on rear flyleaf; D.L. Cumming, inscription on flyleaf