POLYGLOTT BIBLES

are such Bibles, or editions of the Holy Scriptures, as are printed in various languages, at least three, the texts of which are ranged in opposite columns. Some of these Polyglott editions contain the whole Bible, others but a part of it. The principal Polyglotts that have yet appeared are these following:— 1. The Bible of Francis Ximenes, cardinal of the order of St. Francis. It was printed in 1514–17, in four languages—Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, and Latin. From having been printed at Alcala, in Spain, anciently Complutum , this is called the Com plu tens i an Polyglott. It cost Cardinal Ximenes 50,000 ducats. 2. The Psalter of Just in i an i, bishop of Nebbio, of the order of St. Dominic. It appeared in 1516, in five languages; Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, Latin, and Arabic. 3. The Psalter, by John Potken, provost of the collegiate church of St. George, at Cologne, published in 1518, in four languages—Hebrew, Greek, Chaldee, and Latin. 4. The Pent a teuch, published by the Jews, at Constantinople, in 1546, in Hebrew, Chaldee, Persian, and Arabic; with the commentaries of Solomon Jarchi. 5. The Pent a teuch, by the same Jews, in the same city, in 1547, in four languages—Hebrew, Chaldee, the vulgar Greek, and Spanish. 6. An imperfect Polyglott, containing only fragments of the book of Genesis and of the Psalms; the Proverbs, the prophets Micah and Joel, with part of Isaiah, Zechariah, and Malachi; published by John Drac on it is, of Carlos tad, in Franc on i a, in 1563–5, in five languages—Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, Latin, and German. 7. Christopher Plant in’s Polyglott Bible, published by order of Philip II., king of Spain, Antwerp, in 1569, 1572. It is in eight volumes, and in Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, and Latin: with the Syriac version of the New Testament. This is called the Antwerp Polyglott. 8. Vatablus’s Polyglott Bible, being the Old Testament in Hebrew and Greek, with two Latin versions, one of St. Jerome, the other of Sanctus Pagninus; and Vatablus’s notes. The editorship is attributed to R. Stephens, by Bishop Walton. Dibdin ascribes it to Bertramus, Hebrew profe or at Geneva. It appeared at Heidelberg, in 1586. 9. A Bible in four languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German, published by David Wolder, a Luther an minister, at Hamburg, in 1596. 10. The Polyglotts of Elias Hutter, a German. The first, printed at Nuremberg, in 1599, contains the Pent a teuch, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, in six languages; viz. the Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, Latin, Luther’s German, and Sclavonian; or French, Italian, or Saxon; the copies varying according to the nations they were designed for. This author published the Psalter and New Testament, in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German. But his chief work is the New Testament in twelve languages, viz. Syriac, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, French, Latin, German, Bohemian, English, Danish, and Polish. This was printed at Nuremberg, in 1599. 11. M. le Jay’s Bible, in seven languages, printed at Paris, in 1645. The languages are, the Hebrew, Samaritan, Chaldee, Greek, Syriac, Latin, and Arabic. 12. Walton’s Polyglott, published in England, in 1657. In nine languages, viz. the Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, Samaritan, Syrian, Arabic, Æthiopic, Persic, and Latin; though no one book is printed in so many. This was the most complete and perfect Polyglott ever published. It consists of five volumes, with prolegomena, by Walton, which are in themselves a treasure of biblical criticism, some treatises in the first volume, several new Oriental versions in the fourth and fifth, and a very large collection of various readings in the sixth. 13. Reineccius’, or the Leipsic Polyglott, printed at Leipsic, 1753, in 3 vols., in Latin, German, Hebrew, and Greek: a cheap and commodious edition. 14. Bagster’s Polyglott, London, 1821, 4to and 8vo, in five languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English. Syriac.