Details

Subject(s)

• Columbus, Christopher [Browse]
• America—Early accounts to 1600 [Browse]

Printer

• Porro, Pietro Paolo [Browse]

Editor

• Giustiniani, Agostino, 1470-1536 [Browse]

Former owner

• Bon, Philippe, 1635-1711 [Browse]
• Evans, Arthur B. (Arthur Benoni), 1781-1854 [Browse]
• Kane, Grenville, 1854-1943 [Browse]

Bookseller

• Charles Sessler (Firm) [Browse]

Rare books genre

• Armorial bindings [Browse]

Notes

• Edited by Agostino Giustiniani. According to a note to Psalms 78, he was assisted by Jacobus Furnius in the correction of the Greek text, and by Baptista Cigala in the Arabic.
• Imprint supplied from Latin colophon, sig. [con] 5: "Impressit... Petrus Paulus Porrus, Genuæ in ædibus Nicolai Iustiniani Pauli ... anno ... millesimo quingentesimo sextodecimo mense. VIIIIbri.
• Title in five languages, printed in red and black within woodcut arabasque border. Text in 8 columns across adjacent pages: Hebrew, literal Latin version of Hebrew, Latin Vulgate, Greek Septuagint, Arabic, Chaldee (in Hebrew characters), literal Latin version of the Chaldee, and Scholia (commentary). Colophon on sig. [con]5v-6r printed in all five languages.
• This is the first polyglot version of any part of the Bible. In Psalm 19, chap. 19, verse 4, (sigs. C7-D1), the editor inserted a long note, in the marginal commentary, describing the life and discoveries of Christopher Columbus. According to Winsor, Narrative and critical history of America, v. 2, this is the first printed biographical sketch of Christopher Columbus, with hitherto unpublished accounts of his second voyage.
• Printer's device on final leaf. According to Davies, this mark was used only in the Polyglot Psalter.
• Le Long states that 2,000 copies were printed on paper and 50 on vellum. The Genoa senate ordered all copies destroyed.
• According to dealer's catalog, it contains the first printing of Arabic.

Binding note

ExKa copy in black goatskin blocked in gold on both covers with gilt arms of Philippe Bon (1635-1711), Seigneur de Saint-Martin-du-Tertre, [ cf. Olivier, Manuel de l'amateur de reliures armoriées françaises, no. 1762].

Provenance

• ExKa copy has bookplates of Arthur B. Evans and Grenville Kane.
• WHS copy acquired 11/19/16 from Sessler; inv. 883.

References

• Adams B-1370
• Darlow & Moule 1411

Other title(s)

• Psalterium Hebraeum, Graecum, Arabicum & Chaldaeum.
• Psalterium Hebreum Grecu Arabicu & Chaldeu.

LCCN

32015441

OCLC

45590125

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