[BIBLE, Polyglot]. [WALTON, Brian (1600-1661), editor]. Biblia Sacra Polyglotta. London: Thomas Roycroft, 1655-1657.

6 volumes, folio (443 x 280 mm). Half-titles, engraved frontispiece portrait of Walton by P. Lombart, additional pictorial engraved title, double-page map of the Holy Land, double-page plan of Jerusalem, 3 double-page plates (2 showing plans and elevations of the Temple, one depicting ritual artifacts), and full-page plan of the Temple, all by Wenceslaus Hollar; printed cancel slip to omit "vel summorum Pontificum" mounted to p.48 prefatory matter bound into vol. VI. (Lacking leaf 5T2 in vol. I, and D1-2 and K2 in vol. VI, all presumably blank; a few mostly marginal tears or holes occasionally repaired and occasionally touching letters, some minor dampstaining to a few leaves, some minor toning and light soiling.) Contemporary calf gilt, spines in 7 compartments with 6 raised bands, edges stained red (rebacked to style, preserving all but 2 old red and green morocco lettering-pieces gilt, some wear with a few repairs). Provenance: Albert M. Grier (bookplate in vol. VI).

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, the “Republican” issue, OF THE WALTON POLYGLOT BIBLE. The fourth, last, and most accurate of the large-scale Polyglots of the 16th and 17th centuries, the London Polyglot was a tour-de-force of typography and layout employing Ethiopic and Persian in addition to the usual Arabic, Chaldaean, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Samaritan, and Syriac fonts. Made Bishop of Chester by Charles II in 1660, the editor, Brian Walton, called upon for assistance the considerable talents of Edmund Castell, John Greaves, Henry Hammond, and James Ussher, among others. Republican issue with Walton's thanks in the Preface to Oliver Cromwell for having waived customs duties on the imported paper. The preliminaries in this copy, approximately 210 pages, are bound at the beginning of vol. VI and include all the engraved plates, Walton's Preface, as well as the treatises on Biblical chronology, coins, weights and measures, idioms, as well as Walton's description of the Holy Land, Jerusalem, the Temple, and the Prolegomena. Darlow and Moule 1446; ESTC R36567; Wing B2797.

[With:] CASTELL, Edmund (1606-1686). Lexicon Heptaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Aethiopicum, Arabicum, Conjunctim; Et Persicum, Separatim. London: Thomas Roycroft, 1669. 2 volumes, folio (436 x 273 mm). Title-page printed in red and black, engraved portrait frontispiece to vol. I. (Water damage both volumes, a few minor mostly marginal holes or tears, some soiling and staining primarily to preliminary leaves). Later half brown morocco, spines in 6 compartments with 5 raised based, gilt-lettered in 2 (slight wear, hinges starting, soiling to edges). The Lexicon Heptaglotton is “often bound uniformly with, and as a supplement to, this Polyglot Bible” (Darlow and Moule 1446). ESTC R218940; Wing B2797.

Property from the Dorros Family Collection

[BIBLE, Polyglot]. [WALTON, Brian (1600-1661), editor]. Biblia Sacra Polyglotta. London: Thomas Roycroft, 1655-1657.

[BIBLE, Polyglot]. [WALTON, Brian (1600-1661), editor]. Biblia Sacra Polyglotta. London: Thomas Roycroft, 1655-1657.