The 1568 Greek New Testament in Notably Fine Bindings and Distinguished by Gumuchian - Adams Provenance

[Title in Greek, then]: NOVUM TESTAMENTUM EX BIBLIOTHECA REGIA.

(BINDINGS - 16TH CENTURY). BIBLE IN GREEK. (ESTIENNE IMPRINT).

(Lutetia [Paris]: Robert Estienne II, 1568). 128 x 87 mm. (5 x 3 1/2"). Two volumes.

LOVELY CONTEMPORARY RED MOROCCO, GILT, covers with large central azured arabesque surrounded by curling vines with azured leaves, smooth spines with similar vines, head and foot of spines with egg-and-dart roll similar to one used by Claude de Picques, second volume with faint blind lettering to spine, all edges gilt (perhaps with some minor early restorations, but, if so, then done with such care as to preclude certainty). Housed in modern suede-lined calf-backed clamshell boxes with magnetic closures. Printer's device on titles and final page, decorative initials and headpieces. Front pastedown of volume I with ex-libris of Georgios Arvanitidis. Renouard 171:1; Schreiber 239; Darlow & Moule 4633; Adams, B-1670. See: Verron, "Les Reliures de l’Entrée de Charles IX à Paris (1572) . . . réalisées par Claude Picques" in Bulletin du Bibliophile, 2014 no. 2, pp. 282-98. Just a touch of rubbing to extremities, front hinge of second volume open (but everything quite tight), text with occasional mild browning, small spots, trivial smudges, or tiny worm trails, but A BEAUTIFUL COPY, clean and fresh internally, and the bindings tight and lustrous, with very bright gilt,

With exceptional visual appeal, these two precious volumes, shining with gilt and containing the Greek New Testament from the renowned Estienne family of printers, are of special interest because of their typography, their bindings, and their provenance. With the expressed goal of printing Greek texts from manuscripts in the royal library at Fontainebleau, François I established the post of royal printer in Greek in 1539, appointed Robert Estienne I (1503-59) to the position in 1542, and commissioned the renowned Claude Garamond to cut a new Greek font for this project. To design the type, the King called on his own celebrated calligrapher, Angelo Vergecio, who produced, in collaboration with Garamond, three different sizes of what came to be called the Royal Types or "grecs du roi." According to Schreiber, "These cursive Greek types are universally acknowledged as the finest ever cut." In 1548 and 1549 Robert Estienne issued the press' first Greek Testament (known as the "O mirificam" edition for the opening of the dedication to the king) in 16mo, or "pocket," format, using the smaller font of Garamond's "grecs du roi." In 1550, Robert, a Protestant, moved to Geneva, while his son Robert II (1533-70), a Catholic, remained in Paris and took over as the royal printer in Greek. Our 1568 Testament--the only one issued by the son--is a reprinting of the "O mirificam" edition, but expanded with the critical apparatus from the 1550 folio edition issued by the father. Schreiber notes that our edition is interesting from a typographical point of view, as it contains an even more minute version of the already small grecs du roi type for the Table of Chapters. The exceptionally pretty volumes are done in the style of royal binder Claude Picques (fl. 1539-78), and employ a decorative roll very similar to one that appears on the spine of the vellum bindings Picques did for "L'Entrée de Charles IX à Paris" (1572). Our volumes once graced the library of Constantinople collector Georgios Arvanitidis (1876-1953), whose library included a number of Estienne Greek editions. They were later in the distinguished library of Frederick B. Adams (1910-2001), director of the Pierpont Morgan Library from 1948-69 and then president of the prestigious Association Internationale de Bibliophilie from 1974-83. And they were featured in the celebrated 1929 Gumuchian catalogue of 398 historically exceptional bindings as item #71. (ST20921)

Price: $19,500.00