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BIBLE: New Testament. Greek.
Tes Kaines Diathekes
Amsterdam, W.Blaeu, 1633.
£2850.00
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32mo. pp. [ii] 3-454 [vi] pp. Greek letter, engraved title-page depicting dove at head, 2 cherubs supporting title, saints on either side and below. Light age yellowing, some worming to joints and at foot of spine. A very good copy in mid 17th century red morocco with elaborate tooling, central plain shield charged with a chief, surmounted by a vulture, additional wing at foot, in oval within pointille lozenge, ornate gilt frame, twin entwined 'B' monogram corner-pieces, double-gilt ruled frame spine gilt in compartments, with 2 monograms and crests, rebacked, preserving original spine. Inner dentelles gilt, marbled end papers, aeg. Autograph Greek inscription of John Evelyn to fly "sum Evelini 'Keep the best things'". Christie's sale plate to front pastedown. Pocket-sized Greek New Testament, entirely unglossed. "The editor, according to Reuss, must have taken as the basis of this text Beza's third major edition, emending it in places by the help of other editions, especially R. Stephanus' second edition" (Darlow & Moule). The text is not divided into verses, but with verse numbers in inner margins. 3 leaves of passages from the Old Testament conclude the work.
This striking French binding (q.v. Keynes plate 7), possibly from the school of Clovis Eve, was made for Evelyn's father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne. His extensive library, much of which later went to Wotton, Evelyn's ancestral home, was replete with identical and similar designs in uniform fine morocco. The coat of Browne "of a kind usually borne only by ancient families of feudal line, was an augmentation specially granted to Sir Richard Browne by a warrant dated January 1649/50." (Keynes, p.25-6). The monograms, sometimes mistaken for John Evelyn's own, are in fact those of Browne, being mirrored 'B'.
Famed writer and diarist John Evelyn first met Sir Richard Browne in Paris in 1643, a friendship that "cultivated to the full his taste for books" (Keynes). By his death his library is known to have comprised 3,859 books and 822 pamphlets.
This copy was sold as part of the library of the late Sir William Tite by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge in 1874, lot 3115.
Darlow and Moule 4681. CLC B1498
L1011b
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