Psalter, polyglot

Italy, Genoa, Pietro Paolo Porro, 1516

First edition. "Psalterium, Hebreum, Grecum, Arabicum, & Chaldeum, cum tribus latinis interpretatonibus & glossis" (edited by Agostino Giustiniani). This is the first polyglot edition of any part of the Bible, and also the first polyglot work ever published. – In a Venetian binding commissioned by the famous bibliophile Marcus Fugger (1529-1597), member of the prominent Fugger family of Augsburg patricians and bankers.

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Early printed book

328 x 232 mm. – 200 leaves. Title printed in red and black within fine woodcut arabesque border, printer’s device on final leaf, 13 woodcut floriated initials

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The Psalter in five languages and in different versions

Overview

The present book is of utmost importance in several further respects: the second book printed in Arabic language, the earliest Arabic printing of a portion of the Bible; it contains the first edition of the Aramaic text of the Psalter, and offers cabalistic texts from the Zohar for the first time. Moreover, it is a noted Americanum, as Giustiniani’s commentary provides the first substantial biographical reference to the Genuese Christopher Columbus.

Printed in eight parallel columns on double pages, this Psalter comprises the text in Hebrew, a literal Latin translation from the Hebrew, the Latin Vulgate, the Greek Septuagint, Arabic, Aramaic (Chaldee), a literal Latin translation from the Aramaic, and scholia in the same languages. The learned Dominican Agostino Giustiniani (1470-1536) was Bishop of Nebbio in Corsica from 1514, and later became the first professor of Arabic and Hebrew in Paris. He edited, supervised, and financed the present edition, and he also wrote the commentary.

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