(Apparatus ad Biblia Sacra Polyglotta) [spine-lable title]. Parts One and Two bound here in two volumes.

This represents the “Apparatus Sacer” from Plantin’s extraordinary feat of Bible scholarship, edited by the great Arias Montanus. Originally issued as Volumes VI and VIII of the 8-volume Antwerp Polyglot. The Antwerp Polyglot Bible sponsored by Philip II of Spain (r.1556-1598) comprised one of the most important book publishing projects in the later sixteenth century. It is richly illustrated with copperplate engravings, and includes the first-known double-hemispheric world map in a Bible. Cartographically accurate in 1572, the map shows the migration of Noah’s progeny to the New World, illustrating the theory that Native American Indians were descendants of ancient Hebrews. See Israel Museum Catalogue, Plantin of Antwerp (1981) pp. 95-8; E. & G. Wajntraub, Hebrew Maps of the Holy Land, no. 12.