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Bible, Greek New Testament: : [...] Novum Testamentum. Ex Bibliotheca Regia. [...]

Two vols. in one, 16mo. pp. [xxxii], 494, [ii] (blank); 342, [xlii], (the first blank). Greek text. Woodcut device on both titles (Schreiber B3) and on the verso of the final leaf (Schreiber 26). Foliated headpieces and initials. Printed in a reduced version of the smallest font of the Grec du Roi, with a table of chapters at the end printed in what Schreiber describes as ‘an exceedingly minute Greek type’. Old ownership inscription on the title. Some toning and light spotting. All edges gilt.

A ‘much esteemed’ edition according to Dibdin, who also praises the elegance of the device. This is the work of Robert Estienne the younger, a son of Robert the elder and brother of Henri. Tradition has it that he refused to abandon the Catholic faith and follow his father to Geneva, and was therefore disinherited by him. He was compensated for this by Charles IX, and in 1563 was appointed Typographus Regius. This edition is based primarily on his father's 12mo editions of 1546-9 (D. & M. suggest that the work deliberately resembles the ‘O mirificam’ editions, which had become difficult to procure), but also has readings from the folio of 1550., Adams B-1670; Schreiber: The Estiennes, 239; Darlow & Moule 4633; Dibdin I, 128; Greswell, 88.

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