A Monumental Greek Bible in an Exceptional French Armorial Binding

Biblia graeca. ΤΗΣ ΘΕΙΑΣ ΓΡΑΦΗΣ […]. Divinae scripturae, veteris ac novi testamenti, omnia… Basel, Johannes Herwagen, 1545.

One of the great monuments of sixteenth-century Greek printing: the fourth printed edition of the complete Greek Bible, magnificently produced in Basel by Johannes Herwagen and preserved here in an extraordinary seventeenth-century French armorial morocco binding from the library of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister to Louis XIV and one of the greatest bibliophiles of the ancien régime.

Edition & Bibliographic Information

Π4 a–z6 A–Z6 Aa–Ss6 Tt4 Vu–Zz6 AA–MM6 NN4 = 2 [of 4] preliminary leaves, 969 pp. including blank Tt4 and New Testament divisional title, 3 leaves. Two leaves of the preface were never bound into this copy. Printed partly in double columns.

With historiated borders and initials in woodcut and metalcut by and after Hans Holbein the Younger, together with Herwagen’s woodcut printer’s device on the title and final leaf. Folio (333 × ca. 200 mm).

The present edition represents only the fourth printing of the Greek Bible in its entirety, following the Septuagint in the Complutensian Polyglot, the Aldine Greek Bible of 1518, and the Strasbourg edition of 1524–1526. Herwagen’s text is based on the Aldine edition, though substantially corrected and improved.

Physical Description & Binding

Mid-seventeenth-century French red morocco binding à la Du Seuil over six raised bands, with richly gilt spine compartments, floral cornerpieces, elaborate gilt frames, gilt board edges, and red-speckled edges. The covers bear a large central armorial supralibros and crowned ownership monograms.

The elegance of the volume derives not only from the refined typography of Herwagen’s Greek type, but also from the celebrated decorative material associated with Hans Holbein the Younger. Particularly striking is the recurring border depicting dancing peasants and a bagpiper, designed after Holbein and cut by Jacob Faber.

A Bible Between Humanism, Reformation, and Absolutism

The publication of the complete Greek Bible in Basel was likely encouraged by Philipp Melanchthon, who contributed the Latin preface and personally owned several copies. The edition later became foundational for the Czech Kralice Bible translation begun in 1579 and circulated widely among Protestant scholars across Europe.

Yet this particular copy reveals the remarkable complexity of confessional culture in seventeenth-century Europe.

Although the book entered the library of Jean-Baptiste Colbert — chief minister under Louis XIV and one of the most powerful Catholic statesmen of his age — the two leaves containing Melanchthon’s preface were never included in the volume. The omission appears deliberate and highly revealing: the Protestant reformer’s text was evidently considered unacceptable within Colbert’s impeccably curated royal library.

The result is a fascinating historical object standing precisely at the intersection of Renaissance humanism, Reformation scholarship, royal collecting culture, and the politics of religious orthodoxy.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s Copy

The present volume comes from the library of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683), Marquis de Seignelay, minister of finance and navy under Louis XIV, founder of the Académie des Sciences, and among the most celebrated bibliophiles of early modern France. Contemporary writers described him as “l’un des plus ardents bibliophiles que l’on connaisse.”

Colbert assembled one of the most important private libraries of seventeenth-century Europe. His manuscripts eventually entered the Bibliothèque Royale, while the printed books were dispersed at auction in 1728.

Provenance

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, with manuscript ownership inscription “Bibliothecae Colbertinae”; sold in the 1728 Bibliotheca Colbertina sale, vol. I, no. 26, for 76 livres.
Later in the collection of Constantin N. Radoulesco, with leather exlibris.

Literature

Adams B 978; Bibliotheca Sussexiana I/2, p. 235, no. 3 (“very elegantly printed”); BM STC German 84; Brunet I, 863; Darlow & Moule 4614; Delaveau/Hillard 93; Dibdin, Introduction I, 86; Ebert 2207; Graesse I, 383; Heckethorn 124, no. 62; Hieronymus 1992, no. 382; Stockmeyer/Reber 124, no. 62; VD16 B 2576; Hartfelder no. 390; Guigard II, 152ff.; Mazal, p. 242; Olivier 1296, no. 4.

For a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, lot 82:
Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume II