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Genoa: Petrus Paulus Porrus, 1516.

Price: $40,000.00

About the item

Title printed in red and black within woodcut arabesque border, printer's device on final leaf. Parallel text in Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Arabic and Chaldaean Aramaic, 4 columns to a page, 41 lines. 13 woodcut floriated initials. A10 B-Z8 &8 [con]6; [200] leaves [complete]. Folio (13-1/8 x 9-3/8 inches). Contemporary blind tooled pigskin over bevelled wooden boards, boards with repeated roll of hound, hunter, and stag, spine with floral tools. Clasps perished, early repairs with vellum at lower corners; spine darkened with chip at foot, joint starting, wormholes to the covers. Toning throughout, worm holes throughout but heavier to the preliminary and terminal leaves, paper loss (not affecting text) at the lower outer corners of the first 3 leaves, minor dampstaining at the lower corners of most leaves and extending from the top inner margin. Scattered early marginalia. Adams B1370; BM STC Italian, p. 97; Darlow & Moule 1411; Sabin 66468; European Americana 516/4; Harrisse (BAV) 88; JCB (3) I:64; Smitskamp 236; Roper, Early Arabic Printing in Europe, in Sprachen des Nahen Ostens und die Druckrevolution, p. 132; Vinograd, Genoa 1. Provenance: Cenobii Alois 1570 (inscription below title); Bibliotheca Regia Monacensi (pencil inscription on the inside front board identifying it as a duplicate); General Theological Seminary (ink and blindstamps and other markings).

Item #371021

The Genoa Psalter, also known as the Octaplum or Quadruplex Psalter, was the first polyglot psalter to be published (and the first polyglot edition of any part of the Bible). Financed by the Oriental language scholar Bishop Agostino Giustiniani and printed in Genoa in 1516, it presents the psalms laid out in eight columns (i.e. four per page on double-page spreads): in Hebrew, a Latin paraphrase, the Vulgate Latin, the Septuagint Greek, Arabic, Chaldean Aramaic, a Latin paraphrase, and the editor’s notes. "A monument of Renaissance typography, this Psalter was linguistically the most ambitious work attempted to date, and the first Polyglot work ever published. It provides the Psalms in five languages as well as a marginal scholarship based largely on rabbinic sources. The Arabic text is one of the first two texts, and the first biblical text, ever printed in this language. The Hebrew types used in this book were apparently never used again" (B. Sabin Hill, Hebraica from the Valmadonna Trust, The Piermont Morgan Library [1989] no. 18).

Notably, within a lengthy editor's note to Psalm XIX, is what is considered the first printed biography of Christopher Columbus, along with a very early description of his voyage. A native son of Genoa, Giustiniani presents the discovery of the new world as a fulfilment of Biblical prophecy, appropriately glossing verse four of Psalm XIX to include his biography of Columbus: "Their sound is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world."

The text of the biography of Columbus, written a decade after his death, includes a brief account of his childhood and continues at length on his discovery of America. Translated from the Latin, it begins: "And so, their words have reached unto the ends of the earth, at least in our own times, in which, by the marvelous daring of Christopher Columbus of Genoa, almost another world was discovered and joined to the community of Christians. And since Columbus often declared that he was chosen by God so that through him this prophecy would be fulfilled, I did not consider it unsuitable to include his life here. Therefore, Christopher, surnamed Columbus, a Genoese by birth … lived in our age and through his own efforts explored more lands and seas in a few months than almost all other mortals had done throughout all previous ages ... More swiftly than the Portuguese had done, he approached new lands and new peoples, and at last penetrated regions unknown before now. The news of this matter quickly reached the King, who — both out of rivalry with the Portuguese kings and a desire for such new marvels and glory that might accrue to him and his descendants — after long discussions with Columbus, finally ordered two ships to be outfitted. With these, Columbus set sail from the Fortunate Islands, directing his course slightly off the western line … After many days of sailing, they had covered great distances. While the others, having lost all hope, urged a change in course, Columbus persisted, asserting by reason and conjecture that continuing but a little longer might lead them to discover continents or islands. Nor was he wrong. On the following dawn, they sighted land. From this event, immense confidence arose in human minds. Later, it was learned that these were islands, and observations were made of certain peoples there, uncultivated and prone to raids on their neighbors, even devouring human flesh like wolves. There were violent encounters, yet eventually some of these islanders were brought safely to Spain, astonishing and delighting all who saw them, because they were at first timid, unfamiliar with approach, easy to persuade, and marveling at everything as new..."

An important and desirable work from a liturgical, linguistic, and historical perspective.