Christian Cyclopedia

The Tetrapla (texts of the LXX, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion) and Hexapla (Heb., Heb. in Gk. characters, Aquila, Symmachus, LXX, Theodotion) of Origen were the earliest known polyglot Scriptures; extant in fragments of excerpts. One page of a projected polyglot was printed in the 15th or 16th c. by the Aldine press, founded by Aldus Manutius (1450–1515). The 1st complete printed polyglot was the Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, 600 copies printed in 1517 at Complutum (Alcalá de Henares), Sp. (hence called Complutensian Polyglot), under patronage of F. Jimenez* de Cisneros at cost of 50,000 ducats; pub. ca. 1522; see also Lexicons, B. The Antwerp Polyglot, 8 vols., 1569–72, also called Biblia Regia because it was printed under patronage of Philip II of Sp. (1527–98; king of Sp. 1556–98), contains the Complutensian texts, a Chaldee paraphrase, the Syriac version, and a Lat. tr. by B. Arias* Montano. The Paris Polyglot, 10 vols., was pub. 1645; additions to former polyglots include the Samaritan Pentateuch and an Arab. version of both Testaments. The London Polyglot, 6 vols., ed. B. Walton,* pub. 1657, is much more comprehensive than previous polyglots. The Leipzig Polyglot (Biblia Sacra Quadrilinguia, ed. C. Reineccius*), 3 vols. 1713–51, includes M. Luther's Ger. tr. The Heidelberg Polyglot (probably ed. Bonaventura Cornelius Bertram [1531–94; b. Thouars, Fr.; prof. Heb. Geneva, Switz.]), 3 vols., was pub. 1586; the Hamburg Polyglot (ed. D. Wolder*) 1596; the Nürnberg Polyglot of E. Hutter* (OT to Ruth, Ps, and NT) 1599–1602; Bagster's Polyglot 1831; the 4-vol. Polyglotten-Bibel, ed. E. R. Stier and K. G. W. Theile, was pub. from the mid-1840s to 1855; The Hexaglot Bible, Comprising the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in the Original Tongues, Together with the Septuagint, the Syriac (of the New Testament), the Vulgate, the Authorized English, and German, and the Most Approved French Versions, 6 vols., 1876; Biblia Polyglotta Matritensia, Madrid, 1957–.

Historical Catalogue of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture in the Library of the British and Foreign Bible Society, comp. T. H. Darlow and H. F. Moule, 2 vols. in 4 (New York, 1903–11).