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

16mo. pp. 528; 361, [v] (1 blank). First edition. Greek text. Basilisk device (a play on the Greek “Basileus”) of the King’s printer in Greek on the title and the divisional title (first use of device B3 according to Schreiber), with the familiar Estienne olive tree on the verso of the colophon leaf. Schreiber calls for three un-numbered leaves at the end. We appear to have two, the colophon leaf and one blank. The remaining two blanks, though of similar paper quality, appear to be the original end-papers and are annotated with prayers in an early hand. Some light waterstaining in the second part of the work. Modern calf backed boards. Book label of Elizabeth Armstrong, the well known scholar of sixteenth-century French printing in general and the Estiennes in particular. Gauffered edges, gilt.

First Greek Testament printed by Robert Estienne, and the first use of Claude Garamond’s second font of the “grecs du roi”. The first of the two ‘O mirificam’ editions (the second dates to 1549) known as such because of the dedication to Francis I, praising the King for commissioning the smaller type so that pocket editons could be printed in Greek. The support and protection of Francis I was vital, particularly when it came to printing the Bible in Greek, an activity regarded with extreme suspicion by the Catholic censors at the Sorbonne. Fortunately for Estienne, Francis himself initiated a programme of printing in Greek to display French scholarly and technical expertise, and the device of King’s printer in Greek on the title page was a powerful shield. Printing the folio Greek Testament in 1550, by which time a new king, Henri II, was on the throne, precipitated Estienne’s departure for Protestant Geneva., Schreiber 90; Darlow & Moule 4616; Renouard 65, 2.

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