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Lot n° 471
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De Testamenten der XII. Patriarchen Jacobs kinder[en], hoe een yeghelyck voor zyn eynde syn kinder[en] gheleert ende totten vreesen godts, ende godtzaligen leven vermaen heeft, seer troostelyck, ende tot een goet leven gansch dienstelyck. Hier is by...

Estimation : 4000 / 5000
Adjudication : 4 000 €
Description
gheset het Testament van Jacob haerlieder vader.
Antwerpen, Willem Sylvius, 1569. Small in-8° : [82] ff. (slightly browned throughout, some small and light stains, title somewhat thumbed). Late 17th Cent. binding : vellum, blind tooled boards with central medaillon, title in ink on flat spine (2 holes burned in 1st flyleaf leaving a trace on the inside of upper board). ONLY COPY KNOWN of the 1st Willem Sylvius edition, set in CIVILITÉ TYPES, of the Apocryphal Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, banned the same year as our edition rolls from the press. The text follows the structure of the Plantinian editions but spread over a larger number of pages due to the use of this particular typesetting. It contains an introduction to the reader, the Testaments of the Twelve sons of Jacob, an account of the discovery of these texts and finally, the Testament of Jacob himself.
Its origin must be placed between c. 165 and 65 B.C. but the first textual versions in Greek are given by Origen from Alexandria (c. 184-c. 253), considered by Erasmus as the most important theologian of Christian Antiquity. Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175-1253), bishop of Lincoln, produced a Latin translation and the first printed edition appeared c. 1520. In a very short time it became very popular and was translated into German (1539), French (1540), Dutch (c. 1540) and English (1574).
The Dutch translation went through at least 12 editions up to 1570 in the Southern and Northern Netherlands; amongst those 3 printed by Plantin for Peeter Keerberghen, from 1561 to 1566, all in civilité. In 1569 the Duke of Alva ordered Plantin to reprint the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum" from 1564 with an appendix of additional titles including the Testaments of the Patriarchs (with a specific reference to Keerberghen's 1566 edition). Probably, as a consequence of this, Plantin might have passed the baton to Silvius who published the present edition and another one in the following year. Found in public and recognised as forbidden books there is little doubt that most copies were destroyed. Our copy seems to be the only surviving one of Silvius's first edition, as well as Cambridge University Library appears to posess the only surviving copy of the 1570 edition.
The great French punchcutter Robert Granjon (c. 1512-1590) cut the first civilité type ever for one of his own publications in 1557.
Most probably Granjon, before leaving Antwerp in 1570, cut both civilité type sets appearing in our Testaments but which Silvius used already in 1565 and 1566.
IN ALL : A UNIQUE COPY OF A BEAUTIFUL CIVILITÉ EDITION of a banned Old Testament apocrypha, and one of the greatest importance for the Antwerp typographical history.
Provenance : Isaac Le Long (1683- after 1762), famous historian and bibliographer, author of the first reference work on Dutch bibles "Boekzaal der Nederduytsche Bijbels" published in 1732 (handwritten annot.; his sale in Amsterdam, 1744, nr 480; # Blogie 15); Jacob Isaac Doedes (1817-1897), famous theologian at the University of Utrecht (handwritten annot.; his sale in Utrecht, Beijers, 4 May 1898, nr 841; # Blogie 139).
# Not in BB, neither in BT, Machiels, Adams, STC Dutch, Carter & Vervliet, NUC, OCLC WorldCat, KVK (several references for related editions but not one concerning ours !).
Exemplaire unique (!) d'une édition anversoise du Testament des Douze Patriarches, texte biblique apocryphe mis à l'Index en 1569, entièrement en caractères de civilité. Rel. plein parchemin du 17e siècle (brûlure aux gardes devant).
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