 |
BIBLE, New Testament in Greek. TH? KAINH? ?IA?HKH? A?ANTA. Novum Iesu Christi Domini Nostri Testamentum.
Sedan, Ionnes Iannoni, 1628 [March 1629]
£2750.00
|
|
32mo. pp. [3], 4-571, [i] lacking last two blanks. Greek letter. Small floriated initials, ms. "Ex Dono Rog: Cotes Trin: Coll: Soc. in Acad: Cant Astron Proff. A:D 1712" on fly, autograph in the same hand "Harrold" above, C18 armorial bookplate of Thomas Philip Earl de Grey on pastedown. Title with small old repair to lower outer blank corner, margins cut slightly close as usual, occasionally just touching text at fore-edge. A fine copy, crisp and clean, in 17th-century English black turkey, covers finely tooled in gilt to a panel design, large fleurons to outer corners, outer panel with finely worked side pieces and circular whorls, inner panel filled with semé of small tools and flowers, spine with raised bands richly gilt in four compartments, later title label gilt, a.e.g. joints slightly cracked, one corner worn, spine slightly faded. A lovely, beautifully bound copy of one of the smallest Greek Testaments ever printed, using one of the smallest Greek types ever made, with a most interesting and distinguished provenance. This miniature Greek New Testament, entirely unglossed, takes the text from the 1624 Elzevir edition, and for generations has been a sought after bibliophilic delight. Jannon, a Protestant from Switzerland, trained in Paris before working as a printer for the Calvinist Academy in Sedan. In 1621 he printed a Specimen in which he showed a range of types, which Beatrice Ward showed to be the types used (from 1640) by the Imprimerie Royale. He produced his own version of Garamond's Roman and Italic types which were often confused with Garamond's own. A stunning, probably London binding of c. 1690. Whoever the binder, his artistic imagination, craftsmanship and materials were of the highest order, most probably accounting for the volume's distinguished provenance. Roger Cotes (1682 - 1716) was an English mathematician chiefly known for working closely with Isaac Newton in editing the second edition of his most famous work, the Principia, which took three and a half years to revise. He also invented the quadrature formulas known as Newton-Cotes formulas and first introduced what is known today as Euler's formula. He was the first Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University, from 1707 until his death. He died of a violent fever at the early age of 33 causing Newton to lament "Had Cotes lived we might have known something". The book passed, presumably via Cotes' donee 'Harrold', to the library of Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey, (1781-1859), of Wrest Park Bedfordshire, Tory politician and statesman. He was the first president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a fellow of the Royal Society, a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and served as one of the New Buckingham Palace Commissioners from 1848. Besides remodeling his London home at No.4 St James's Square (now the Naval & Military Club) he designed the new Wrest House, inspired by French architecture, at his estate in Bedfordshire between February 1833 and October 1839, assisted by James Clephan. A lovely copy of this miniature book in a beautiful jewel like binding.
BM STC Fr. C17 946. Darlow & Moule 4676: 'the smallest Greek Testament ever printed, with the exception of Pickering's miniature edition of 1828'
|
|
|