- Biblia Polyglotta
The Biblia Polyglotta (also called the "Biblia Regia") was printed between
1568 and1573 by the printerChristoffel Plantijn in his printing house inAntwerp (nowBelgium ).Plantin was suspected of Calvinist sympathies, although Antwerp at that time was firmly Catholic. He developed a plan to prove his loyalty to the Catholic king
Philip II of Spain by producing a version of the Bible in five languages. The king financed the plan and sent the Spanish theologianBenito Arias Montano to Antwerp to watch over the production of this eight-volume masterpiece of printing, which was printed in 1100 copies.The first four volumes contain the
Old Testament . The left page has two columns with theHebrew original and the Latin translation, the right page has same text in Greek with its own Latin translation. Underneath these columns there is a Aramaic version on the left-hand page and a Latin translation of this on the right-hand side. For printing the Hebrew text Plantin used among othersDaniel Bomberg 's Hebrew type, which he had received from Bomberg's nephews. [The type is still extant in thePlantin-Moretus Museum inAntwerp . See: Albert van der Heide, "Hebraica Verita. Christopher Plantin and the Christian Hebraists", Antwerp: Plantin-Moretus Museum, 2008, Exhibition catalogue, p. 155.] Volume 5 contains theNew Testament in Greek and Syriac, each with a Latin translation, and a translation of the Syriac into Hebrew. Volume 6 has the complete Bible in the original Hebrew and Greek, as well as an interlinear version that has the Latin translation printed between the lines.The last two volumes contain dictionaries (Hebrew-Latin, Greek-Latin, Syriac-Aramaic, grammar rules, list of names, etc.) that were of value to scholars.
A complete copy of this Bible is on display at the
Plantin-Moretus Museum (the site of the original printing press), including the typefaces which were designed for this project.Sources
* Museum guide "Plantin-Moretus Museum" in Antwerpen
* [http://www.llb-detmold.de/ausstellungen/bibeljahr/juli.html Bible of the Month] (in German)
* [http://users.pandora.be/gaston.d.haese/plantijn_ned.html Christoffel Plantijn] (in Dutch)Notes
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