Biblia sacra cvm Glossis, interlineari & Ordinaria, Nicolai Lyrani Postilla & Moralitatibus, Burgensis Additionibus, & Thoringi Replicis. Tomvs primvs - ... Omnia ad Hebraeorum & Graecorum fidem iam primum suo nitori restituta, & variis scholiis illustrata. by Bible. Latin. Nicolas de Lyre (ca. 1270-1349), Pablo de Santa María (ca.1353-1435), Matthias Döring (ca. 1395-1469), anots. ; Sante Pagnini (1470-1541), trad. ; Miguel Servet (1511-1553), ed - 1545

Biblia sacra prepared by Miguel Servet, illustrated with engravings by Holbein. Complete with the seven volumes.
(Please, call for complete photos set)

7 vols. (2300 f.), in Folio (407x279 mm).- Biblical text in the inner box, interlineated and framed by the glosses in two columns; marginal apostilles; woodcut capitals; woodcuts.
T. 1: 377, [1] f. [f. 15 missnumbered as 16, 228 as 226, 273 as 257, 376 as 356]; sign.: a-z8/6, A-C6, D-Z8/6, aa-gg8/6, hh8 [hh8, blank.].
T. 2: 315, [1] f. ; sign.: a-d8, e-f6, g-r8, s6, t8, v-x6, y-z8, A8 B-N8/6 O-P8 Q-S6 T-V8 [V8, so].
T. 3: 440 f. [f. 150 missnumbered as 135, 156 as 159; 429 as 426]; sign.: a-z8/6, A-Z6/8, aa-qq8/6 rr6.
T. 4: 479, [1] f. [f. 92 missnumbered as 62, 157 as 165, 160 as 168, 181 as 188, 451 as 452, 454 as 453]; sign.: a-z8/6 A-Z6/8 aa-xx8/6 yy10 [yy10, blank].
T. 5: 244 f. [f. 89 missnumbered as 90]; sign.: a-z8/6 A-K6/8 L-M6.
T. 6: 285, [1] f. [f. 34 missnumbered as 43].- sign.: a-z8/6, A-R6/8.
T. 7 (Index): [156] f. ; sign.: a-s8, t6, v6 [wanting v6, blank].
Original Renaissance full leather binding over wood; boards with triple border and embossed ornaments; silent spine with four nerves and glued call number; red inked edges with title handwritten in fore edge. For all the volumes: stained boards with severe skin losses and drill points; spine leather brittle and dry; crowns, absent; closing metal hinges, lost; call-numbers, half-torn and those of volumes 4 and 5, exchanged; galleries in front free end papers, title-pages, two first leaves and rear free end papers, without affection (otherwise specified); galleries in margins from time to time; sporadic oxidation points; several folios browned.T. 1: Dampstain in margins, especially in bottom margin, throughout the entire volume, in upper margin from f. 370, and in final bottom tips; gallery in bottom margin until f. 24 no affecting; some underlines in f. 49; tear in f. 91 side margin; punctual hole no affecting from f. 210 until the end of the volume; sporadic punctual holes in final leaves.
T. 2: Gallery in title-page and two first leaves, affecting; galleries in side margin of ff. 120-138 and ff. 287-304; upper tips of firsts leaves, and bottom tips in the final part, dirty; dampstain in bottom, at the end of the book; galleries in last leaves, no affecting.
T. 3: Some galleries in both bottom and side margins, no affecting; ripping in side margin of f. 191; gallery in sid margin from f. 405 until the end; dampstain on bottom margin of the end of the book.
T. 4: Slight gallery in bottom margin between ff. 452-458; side margin of two last leaves and rear free end paper, dirty and broken.
T. 5: Small affection to the text by galleries in the first two folios; deep gallery in lateral margin in ff. 3-37, no affecting; upper tips of folios 18 and 66, absent; slight dampstain and wormhole in bottom inner margin in the central part of the volume; two rips in f. 22 upper margin; two last leaves and trear free end paper with galleries without affecting.
T. 6: Sporadic dampstains; galleries in four last leaves, slightly affecting the text.
T. 7: Rips in side margin of signatures f6, p4 and p5; bottom tips, dirty.
Prov.: Handwritten ex-libris in title-pages, 'P. Episcopus Oscensis'; stamped ex-libris, 'Este libro es de la Librería del Monasterio de S. Francisco de Caragoça', in title-pages (crossed out) and in verso of last folio of all the volumes.
Refs.: Baudrier, Bibliograhie lyonnaise, XII, pp. 257-262.
From the middle of the 12th century, the Bible, especially the Old Testament, had been transmitted not only as the word of God, but as a text of teachings that, to clarify its senses, should be glossed. The most celebrated glosses were those by Anselme de Laon (saint Anselm, m.1117) commented by Nicolás de Lyre (m.1349). In the middle of the fifteenth century, the rabbi Selemoh-Ha Levi, better known by his Christian name as bishop of Burgos, Paul of Santa Maria (m.1435), commented on Lyre's glosses which, in turn, were commented by Matthias Döring (d.1469). The resulting set of the biblical text with these glosses and commentaries constitutes the 'model' that is known as Glossed Bible, containing as biblical text the Latin version known as Biblia vulgata, that transmitted from the IVth c., and attributed to Jerome of Stridon (saint Jerome).
In 1528, Sante Pagnini (1536), disciple of Savonarola, finished his version of the Glossed Bible in which, after 20 years of work, he had not only replaced the literality of the texts collected in the Vulgate by those he had translated from Greek originals, but also he had added summaries to its chapters. His version was printed for the first time in Lyon as 'Biblia habes in hoc libro
prudens lector utriusque novam tralatione' (Lyon: A. du Ry, 1528)(1).
Once since the beginning of the XVIth c. Greek versions of the Bible, more ancient than Latin ones, were found, there were several attempts to recover the 'word of God' closer to the original. Erasmo and Robert Estienne's efforts are famous, but are less known those by Miguel de Servet, who took in charge a textual revision of Pagnini's Bible, to be edited by the Lyon's Compagnie des Libraires. It was finally published in 1542 by Hugues de la Porte, with the addition of Servet scolios -comments-, being the last of the printed results of his work in which he recorded his very name, Miguel de Villanueva, culminating his resignation to do it that he had initiated after the prosecution he suffered in 1538(2).
While developing this work, Servet signed a new contract, in February 1540, in exchange for 50 livres tournesas, with members of the same Great Booksellers Company of Lyon, Hugues de Laporte, Luxembourg de Gabiano, Antoine Vincent and Jacques de Giunta to "First, arrange
the ordinary gloss on a Bible in six volumes, correcting its spelling, accents, punctuation and diphthongs, as well as to restore the Greek or Hebrew terms found in Latin letters, and the Greek and Hebrew marks. Also to indicate the places in which it will be necessary to insert the annotations of Gabinio to the Old Testament and the annotations of Erasmo to the New as notice by the mentioned mr. Miguel de Villanueva and mr. Master Claude Guilliaud, doctor in Theology of Paris and canon of Autun. Also to write in the margins the apostilles contained in the Bible of Robert Estienne, following the instructions of the aforementioned Guilliaud, as well as taking care that the interlinear glosses will not be duplicated in the apostilles. And also to elaborate the indexes of said six volumes"(3).
The contracted work did not see the light until 1545, being printed in the Treschel brothers workshop. Thus, in this Biblia sacra that we offer, Servetian work include the updating of the Hebrew and Greek texts, as well as a multitude of scolios, the text of the 'letter to the Christian reader' that opens volume VII, the indexes and the notice to the reader at the end of the same volume. Volume which lacks very often, especially in the copies of Spanish libraries, where it had an initial success highest than in other countries (in Spanish libraries there are about 20 copies, almost all incomplete, while in France there are 3 complete and only half dozen of incompletes). This circumstance makes us wonder if in the production decision to publish this Bible there would not be any kind of commission from any part of the Spanish ecclesiastical hierarchy. In any case, the anonymity in which the participation of Servetus remained in this edition did not prevent his scolios from having many problems among the intransigent Calvinist Protestants as well as among the intransigent Hispanic Catholics.
To illustrate this Bible, the printers, arranged, among the total 54, 22 of the famous and beautiful woodcuts (87x61mm.) that Hans Holbein the young had carved for a previous Bible edition also printed by Treschel brothers: the Bible utriusque Testamenti iuxta vulgatam translationem, & eam, quàm haberi potuit, emendatissimam additis rerum praecipuis in locis iconibu (Lvgduni: Hugonem a Porta, 1538 [colophon: Melchior et Gaspar Treschel, 1538]). The illustrations were so successful that Treschels published them that same year in the beautiful imprint, amazingly in its first edition, Historiarum veteris Testamenti Icones ad vivum expressae. A cum brevi, sed quoad fieri potuit, elucidate carendum expositione (Lugduni: sub scuto coloniensi, 1538 [Colophon: Melchior et Gaspar Treschel, 1538]).
(1) The history of the Bible glossed by St. Anselm and Nicholas of Lyre can be followed in Lesley Smith: The Glossa Ordinaria: The Making of a Medieval Bible Commentary.- Leiden: Brill, 2009.
(2) The best bibliography on Servet publications, in spite of its strange writing, in Francisco González Echeverría: Miguel Servet y los impresores lyoneses del siglo XVI.- Ph. D. Thesis.- Tudela: UNED, 2017.
(3) "...la orthograffier, accentuer, punctuer et dythonguer, ítem de restituer les dictes dictions grecques ou hébraiques que sont en lettres latines et les marques en grec et hébrieu. Item marquer les lieux là où il fauldra insérer les anotations de Haugubinus au Vieil Testament et les annotations de Herasme
au Nouveau ainsi qu'il será aduisé par ledit Me Michel de Villeneuve et par Mr maistre Claude Guilliaud, docteur en theologie de Parys, chanoine d'Ostun [Autun]. Item de escripre en marge les additions marginalles contenues en la bible de Robert Estienne, suyvant lordre dudit Guilliaud et aussi prendre garde aux glosses interlinéaires quelles ne se soient duplicqées et sembles aux marginalles. Item de faire le repertoires desdicts six vollumes". In Henri-Louis Baudrier: Bibliograhie lyonnaise. Recherches sur les imprimeurs, libraires, relieurs et fondeurs de lettres de lyon au XVIe siècle.- Lyon: Librairie ancienne d'Auguste Brun; Louis Brun, 12 v., 1895-1921, vol. VII, pp. 265-266, and vol. XII, pp. 259-260.