Case 1
- Vulgate Bible and Septuagint
![[Bible. Latin Vulgate]. England, thirteenth century.](https://www.reedgallery.co.nz/__data/assets/image/0005/564098/1a.jpg)
[Bible. Latin Vulgate]. England, thirteenth century.
St
Jerome’s late fourth century Latin translation from Hebrew and Greek is known
as the Vulgate Bible. It supplanted the earlier Vetus Latina (Old Latin Bible), which was not a cohesive text
translated by a single person or institution, but a collection of biblical
manuscript texts collected over a century or more. The Vulgate provided a Bible
for use in churches, monasteries and universities throughout medieval Europe.
On display
is the Reed Collections’ oldest complete manuscript, a Vulgate Bible made in England
during the second half of the thirteenth century. Later additions and notes
show that it was still in use in the fifteenth century. The script is of a
neat, dark brown gothic bookhand, with rubrication and decorated initials.
![[Bible. Latin Vulgate]. Mainz: Peter Schöffer, 1472.](https://www.reedgallery.co.nz/__data/assets/image/0007/564694/1b.jpg)
[Bible. Latin Vulgate]. Mainz: Peter Schöffer, 1472.
Included
in the Reed Collections is the second of two volumes of the 1472 Vulgate Bible
printed by Peter Schöffer (ca. 1425-1503) at Mainz – the oldest printed book
held by the Library.
The
second Latin Bible printed by Schöffer, it was reprinted from his 1462 edition,
co-published by Johann Fust, the fourth printed Latin Bible, and the first book
to include a colophon and printer’s device. The Reed Collections also hold a
partial leaf of Schöffer’s 1462 edition.
![[Old Testament in Greek]. Ή ΠΑΛΑΙΑ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΥΣ ΈΒΔΟΜΗΚΟΝΤΑ. Vetus Testamentum Graecum ex versione Septuaginta interpretum. Londini: Excudebat Rogerus Daniel, 1653.](https://www.reedgallery.co.nz/__data/assets/image/0006/564099/1c.jpg)
[Old Testament in Greek]. Ή ΠΑΛΑΙΑ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΥΣ ΈΒΔΟΜΗΚΟΝΤΑ. Vetus Testamentum Graecum ex versione Septuaginta interpretum. Londini: Excudebat Rogerus Daniel, 1653.
The
third- to second- century BC Greek translation of the Old Testament produced in
Egypt is known as the Septuagint. Both the name ‘Septuagint’ (from the Latin
word for seventy) and the common abbreviation LXX refer to the legend of the
Pentateuch’s translation into Greek by seventy Jewish scholars.
On
display is the first edition of the Septuagint printed in England, edited by
the ‘Father of English Unitarianism’ John Biddle (1615-1662).
[Old Testament in Greek]. Ή ΠΑΛΑΙΑ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΥΣ ΈΒΔΟΜΗΚΟΝΤΑ. Vetus Testamentum Graecum ex versione Septuaginta interpretum. Londini: Excudebat Rogerus Daniel, 1653.
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