The Unique Jacques-Marius d’Amboise Copy of Plantin’s Monumental 1583 Copper-Engraved Bible
Biblia latina. Biblia sacra. Quid in hac editione a theologis Lovaniensibus præstitum sit. Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1583.
A unique and magnificently preserved copy of Plantin’s most important Bible edition apart from the Polyglot Bible, printed specially for the great Parisian scholar and bibliophile Jacques-Marius d’Amboise and preserved in the largest known Renaissance fanfare binding. This monumental volume combines the typographic brilliance of the Plantin Press with one of the most extravagant French bindings of the sixteenth century, additionally heightened with black morocco inlays and grey wax colour painting.
Edition & Bibliographic Information
600 leaves (including final blank NN8); [118] pp., 1 blank leaf. Complete; detailed collation in Leon Voet, The Plantin Press. Several passages printed in gold. Bible text printed in double columns with narrow marginal commentary columns throughout.
Illustrated with a total of 94 copper engravings: engraved title after Crispin van den Broeck by Abraham de Bruyn; 5 double-page plates (including 3 maps); and 88 engraved illustrations within the text, of which 7 full-page, after designs by Crispin van den Broeck and Pieter van der Borcht, engraved by Abraham de Bruyn, Jan Sadeler, and Johan Wierix.
Large folio (432 × ca. 280 mm). Binding dimensions: 443 × 300 × 120 mm.
Plantin’s monumental folio Bible ranks among the most ambitious and visually impressive productions of the Plantin Press. Financed with support from Philip II of Spain during the politically volatile years after Antwerp’s liberation from Spanish rule, the edition emerged from the paradoxical world in which Plantin simultaneously printed anti-Spanish pamphlets while producing luxury Catholic books under royal patronage.
The present copy belongs to Voet’s Variant B and therefore appeared without the dedication to Cardinal Albert of Austria included only in a limited portion of the edition.
Physical Description & Binding
Magnificent contemporary red morocco fanfare binding over six raised bands decorated with double gilt fillets. In the second spine compartment, the title Biblia Sacra stamped within a Renaissance cartouche; remaining compartments richly gilt. Covers elaborately decorated with dense gilt tooling from floral and ornamental individual stamps, further enriched with delicate black morocco onlays and additional grey wax colour painting. Gilt board edges and entirely gilt edges throughout.
At 443 mm in height, the binding is the largest known fanfare binding. Tenschert notes that none of the examples reproduced by Hobson approaches this scale. Beyond its extraordinary dimensions, the binding survives in remarkably radiant condition with broad margins and exceptionally fresh gilding throughout.
The combination of intricate gold tooling, leather inlays, and wax-painted ornament elevates the volume into one of the grandest survivals of late Renaissance French bibliophilic art.
Printed for Jacques-Marius d’Amboise
The present Bible was produced specifically for Jacques-Marius d’Amboise (1538–1611), one of the great scholar-collectors of late sixteenth-century France. Several passages in the New Testament referring to Jacob (= Jacques) were printed in gold specifically for this copy — an extraordinary personalization that transforms the volume into a unique presentation exemplar.
The title page further bears d’Amboise’s autograph ownership inscription:
“Jacobi Marii Ambosii.”
Born into a wealthy family from Arles, Jacques-Marius d’Amboise studied classical languages and philosophy in Paris before being appointed professor of philosophy at the Collège de France by King Henri III in 1576. He twice served as rector of the Collège d’Harcourt and became renowned not only for scholarship but also for the magnificence of his library and its bindings.
The present volume stands among the supreme survivals from that library.
Plantin’s Great Engraved Bible
The edition is distinguished by one of the richest engraved illustration cycles ever incorporated into a Plantin Bible. Thirty-six of the engravings were specially designed for this edition by Pieter van der Borcht and engraved by Johan Wierix and Abraham de Bruyn.
Particularly striking is the elaborate architectural engraved title. At its summit appears the title enclosed within a heart-shaped cartouche — a symbol frequently employed in Counter-Reformation imagery — surrounded by scenes from the Old Testament. Below stand Moses with the Tablets of the Law and Aaron before symbols of death and life respectively, while Plantin’s compasses device and motto Labore et Constantia anchor the composition below. Tenschert describes the entire frontispiece as an allegorical apology for the priesthood itself.
The Sorbonne and the Dispersal of the d’Amboise Library
Jacques-Marius d’Amboise bequeathed his library to the Sorbonne, where duplicate sales were already recorded during the seventeenth century. Following the dissolution of the Sorbonne library in 1795, the books dispersed across numerous institutions and private collections.
The present Bible later appeared in the celebrated Morgand-Rahir catalogue of 1900 (no. 482), offered for the enormous sum of 2,500 gold francs, before entering a French private collection where it remained for more than a century.
Provenance
Jacques-Marius d’Amboise (1538–1611), with autograph ownership inscription on title.
Sorbonne Library.
Morgand-Rahir Catalogue, 1900, no. 482.
French private collection.
Literature
Adams B 1089; BM STC Dutch 22; Brunet I, 877; Darlow & Moule II/2, p. 955 note; DBF 2, 512f.; Delaveau/Hillard 941; Franklin II, pp. 221ff. and 281ff.; Graesse I, 395; not in Heitzmann/Santos Noya; Voet, The Plantin Press, no. 690 (B), plates 63–64.
For a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, lot 96: Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume II
