BIBLIA Novum Testamentum. [Graece]. Ex Bibliotheca Regia.

Renouard, Estienne, 65:2; Schreiber, 91; Darlow-Moule, 4616; Adams, B-1656.

First edition.

First edition of the Greek Testament printed by Robert Estienne, and the first book printed in Claude Garamond’s second font of the ‘grecs du roi’. This first Estienne Greek Testament and the second of 1549 are commonly known as the ‘O mirificam‘ editions, from the opening words of Robert’s preface to François I, praising him for commissioning the second Greek font in order to provide Greek texts in pocket format. Robert established the text by comparing the Complutensian and Erasmian printed editions with several manuscripts” (Schreiber).

“The earliest of the editions printed in the famous Paris press of Robertus Stephanus whose Biblical work taken altogether had perhaps more influence than that of any other single man, in the sixteenth century. The text of these editions is based on a comparison of the printed editions with sixteen MSS. The printer’s young son Henricus Stephanius, who became famous for his scholarship, was responsible for the collation” (Darlow-Moule).

Fine copy, well preserved, of this rare edition (“by 1568, it was hard to procure”. Darlow-Moule).