Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Testamentum Novum, ex Des[iderii] Erasmi Rot[erodamiensis] versione, ac ejusdem recognitione postrema [A VERY SCARCE EDITION, ADORNED WITH COPIOUS ANNOTIONS]

(Bible: New Testament; Latin). Erasmus, Desiderius (ed.).

Lyon: Sebastian Gryphius, 1547. Hardcover. 16mo in 8s: a-z8 A-Z8 aa8 bb8 (=384 leaves; blank bb7-8). 763, [5, blank]pp. Printer’s device at title, woodcut lettrines. Text in italic, headlines and chapter headings in roman; printed marginalia. Later pigskin over bevelled boards, tooled in blind, brass clasps (one of two) and catches, manuscript title at spine. Extensive old manuscript notes at front endleaf and four blank leaves at the end (including the two integral blanks); occasional marginalia and underlining. Title soiled, with some slight erosion at margin from oxidation of the clasps, else a very good copy, with clean, fresh text throughout. Complete with the two final blank leaves.

Second Gryphius edition, and a rather uncommon early sixteenth-century printing of Erasmus’ Latin translation of the New Testament, first published at Basel in 1516. According to Baudrier, (Ly. V. 804101/Cat. de Lignerolles, Paris, Porquet, 1894 no. 48) Gryphius first published this translation in 1542 and 1543 as a 16mo of 847 pages; neither of these issues appear in Deleveau & Hillard. Like the present edition, theSE early Gryphius printings of the Erasmus New Testament survive in only a handful of copies. The text opens with Erasmus' dedication to pope Leo X, followed by his preface to the reader, a general index of the New Testament corpus, a listing of the chapters of the four Gospels, and a brief passage from Jerome's catalogue of ecclesiastical writings. The editor's introductions precede each book. The text concludes with Erasmus' translation of a brief discussion of apocryphal literature, partly from Athanasius (though Erasmus questions the attribution): "De libris utriusque testamenti partim reiectus, aut non sine contradictione admissis, partim apocryphis ex Athanasio tametsi mihi suspectus est titulus."

Provenance and annotations: Extensive early annotations in more than one hand appear throughout the book; many marginal notes have been added throughout the Gospel of Matthew. At the front of the book, beginning with the free endleaf: "Poeta de Pythogora" (several stanzas in Latin and Greek); facing the title: A morning prayer "Oro matutina lecturis oracula divina" (11 lines); an accounting of biblical eras (10 lines) since Abraham, David, and the Babylonian Exile appears at the verso of the title leaf. The final blank page, the two intergral blank leaves, and two additional blanks added by the binder are filled with notes (in several different hands), including: a passage from Augustine's De doctrina christianae (14 lines; noted as book 2, chapters 11 and 12), along with four lines about Tertullian; four pages of notes on the twelve disciples (numbered); a Greek text discussing the divine names in which the tetragrammaton is written in Hebrew letters; a passage from a letter of Basilius Magnus in Greek, with Latin translation.

Printed label of Edward Davis Hoblyn (1809-1881), and his manuscript entry dated 1831 at the free endleaf. Edward was likely related to the renowned book collector, Robert Hoblyn (1710-1756) of Cornwall. A catalogue of Robert’s collection was printed in 1768 as Bibliotheca Hobliniana, and reissued by Murray in 1769 with a new titlepage. The library remained with Robert’s widow, and was sold in 1778. The present work is not listed in the Bibliotheca, though no fewer than nineteen 16th-century Latin Bibles and Testaments appear in the catalogue. Gift inscription of D. N. Goodman of San Francisco, Cal[ifornia] to Father J. L. Damas at front pastedown, dated 1935. Very Good-. Item #49141

References: Baudrier 8, 217. Baumgarten, Nach. v. merkw. Büchern 8 (1755), 206, noting that this, and the later Gryphius edition which Le Long assigns to the master printer’s workshop, are in fact identical, and notable examples of elegant typography. Deleveau & Hillard 4407 (BNF). Le Long (Leipzig, 1709) 1:751 & 2:478 (Bibl. Colbertina) - the earlier Gryphius edition of 1542/43 is not cited in either part. Le Long-Masch 2.3, p. 599, noted as the first New Testament ex. Erasmi to appear at Lyon.

Price: $3,000.00