Chamishah Chumshei Torah [-end] / [Novum Testamentum Graece] / Diyathika Chadata

AUCTION 1 |
Thursday, November 14th,
1996 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art
Lot 58
(BIBLE, Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Ancient Syriac [in Hebrew characters]).
Chamishah Chumshei Torah [-end] / [Novum Testamentum Graece] / Diyathika Chadata
Antwerp: C. Plantin 1573-74
Est: $1,000 - $1,500
PRICE REALIZED $700
These three Bible editions: the Old Testament in Hebrew, with the addition of the New Testament in Greek and Syriac, were printed by Plantin in order to present the whole Bible “in the original tongues.” Both the Hebrew and Syriac Bibles were printed in the same minute Hebrew type and were edited by Plantin’s son-in-law Francis Rapheleng. “If of dubious utility for converting Jews to Christianity, Syriac in Hebrew characters was obviously a boon for the Biblical scholar who had mastered three Biblical languages and was perhaps contemplating a fourth.” (D.S. Berkowitz, In Rememberance of Creation: Evolution of Art and Scholarship in the Medieval and Renaissance Bible (1968) no.172). For a most thorough bibliographic examination of these three editions, see Mehlman nos.1899, 1883 and 31