Complutensian Polyglot Bible

Complutensian Polyglot Bible
The first page of the Complutensian Polyglot
Page from Complutensian Polyglot

The Complutensian Polyglot Bible is the name given to the first printed polyglot of the entire Bible, initiated and financed by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (1436-1517). It includes the first printed editions of the Greek New Testament, the complete Septuagint, and the Targum Onkelos. Of the 600 printed six-volume sets, only 123 are known to have survived to date.

Contents

History

With the rise of the printing press in the 1450s, the Bible could be propagated much more efficiently. At great personal expense, Cardinal Cisneros acquired many manuscripts and invited the top religious scholars of the day, including Hernán Núñez, to work on the ambitious task of compiling a massive and complete polyglot "to revive the languishing study of the Sacred Scriptures." The scholars met in the city of Alcalá de Henares (in Latin, Complutum), at the Cardinal's own University of Alcalá. Work on the project began in 1502 under the direction of Diego Lopez de Zúñiga, and continued there for fifteen years.

The New Testament was completed and printed in 1514, but its publication was delayed while work on the Old Testament continued, so they could be published together as a complete work. In the meantime, word of the Complutensian project reached Desiderius Erasmus in Rotterdam, who produced his own printed edition of the Greek New Testament. Erasmus obtained an exclusive four-year publishing privilege from Emperor Maximilian and Pope Leo X in 1516. Erasmus' text became known as the Textus Receptus, and later editions were the basis for the King James Version of the New Testament.

The Complutensian Old Testament was completed in 1517. Because of Erasmus' exclusive privilege, publication of the Polyglot was delayed until Pope Leo X could sanction it in 1520. It is believed to have not been distributed widely before 1522. Cardinal Cisneros died in July of 1517, five months after the Polyglot's completion, and never saw its publication.

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Contents

The Complutensian Polyglot Bible was published as a six-volume set. The first four volumes contain the Old Testament. Each page consists of three parallel columns of text: Hebrew on the outside, the Latin Vulgate in the middle, and the Greek Septuagint on the inside. On each page of the Pentateuch, the Aramaic text (the Targum Onkelos) and its own Latin translation are added at the bottom. The fifth volume, the New Testament, consists of parallel columns of Greek and the Latin Vulgate. The sixth volume contains various Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek dictionaries and study aids. For the Greek text, the minuscules 140, 234, and 432 were probably used.

Jerome's version of the Old Testament was placed between the Greek and Hebrew versions, thus the synagogue and the Eastern church, as the preface explains it, are set like the thieves on this side and on that, with Jesus (that is, the Roman Church) in the midst.

A magnificent full size (folio) facsimile edition was published in Valencia 1984-87. It is reproduced for the Bible text (volumes 1-5) from the copy in the Library of the Jesuit Society at Rome; the rare sixth volume with dictionaries has been reproduced from the copy in the Madrid University Library.

The typeface devised for the Complutensian by Arnaldo Guillén de Brocar has been regarded by typographers such as Robert Proctor as the apex of Greek typographical development in early printing, before Aldus Manutius' manuscript-based typefaces took over the market for the next two centuries. Proctor based his 1903 Otter Greek typeface on the Polyglot; the Greek Font Society's GFS Complutensian Greek is likewise based on the Polyglot.

References

See also

External links


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  • Complutensian Polyglot Bible —       the first of several editions of the Bible in which the text was presented in several languages in adjacent columns. The Complutensian Polyglot presented the Old Testament in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and the New Testament in Greek and Latin …   Universalium

  • Complutensian Polyglot Bible —    A six volume, multilingual edition of both the Old and New Testaments, edited by a group of Spanish scholars working at the new University of Alcalá (in Latin, Complutum) under the patronage of the archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Francisco… …   Historical Dictionary of Renaissance

  • polyglot Bible —       any of several editions of the Bible in which the text consists of translations in various languages arranged in parallel columns. This arrangement allows scholars to compare ancient and modern versions, as well as to examine closely the… …   Universalium

  • Polyglot Bibles — • The first Bible which may be considered a Polyglot is that edited at Alcala, Spain, in 1502 17 . . . Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Polyglot Bibles     Polyglot Bibles …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Polyglot (book) — For other uses, see polyglot (disambiguation). A polyglot (also spelled polyglott) is a book that contains side by side versions of the same text in several different languages. Some editions of the Bible or its parts are polyglots, in which the… …   Wikipedia

  • BIBLE — THE CANON, TEXT, AND EDITIONS canon general titles the canon the significance of the canon the process of canonization contents and titles of the books the tripartite canon …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • complutensian — |kämplü|tenchən adjective Usage: usually capitalized Etymology: Latin complutensis (from Complutum, city in Spain now Alcalá de Henares) + English ian : of or relating to the polyglot bible published in Alcalá de Henares, Spain, in 1513 17 and… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Bible Polyglotte d'Alcalá — Frontispice de la Complutense, avec le blason de Cisneros La Bible polyglotte d Alcalá (en espagnol Biblia políglota complutense, ou plus simplement, la Complutense …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Bible complutense — Bible polyglotte d Alcalá Frontispice de la Complutense, avec le blason de Cisneros La Bible polyglotte d Alcalá (en espagnol Biblia políglota complutense, ou plus simplement, la Complutense …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Bible de Cisneros — Bible polyglotte d Alcalá Frontispice de la Complutense, avec le blason de Cisneros La Bible polyglotte d Alcalá (en espagnol Biblia políglota complutense, ou plus simplement, la Complutense …   Wikipédia en Français

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