Editing Plantin Polyglot

The '''Plantin Polyglot''' (also called the '''''Biblia Regia''''' or "King's Bible") is a [[polyglot (book)|polyglot]] [[Bible]], printed under the title '''''Biblia Polyglotta''''' by [[Christopher Plantin]] in [[Antwerp]] (now [[Belgium]]) between [[1568]] and [[1573]].

Plantin was suspected of [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] sympathies, although Antwerp at that time was firmly [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]]. He developed a plan to prove his loyalty to the Catholic king [[Philip II of Spain]] by producing a [[polyglot (book)|polyglot]] version of the Bible, in five languages. The king financed the plan and sent the Spanish theologian [[Benito Arias Montano]] to Antwerp to watch over the production of this eight-volume masterpiece of printing, which was printed in 1100 copies.

The first four volumes contain the [[Old Testament]]. The left page has two columns with the [[Hebrew]] original and the [[Latin]] translation, the right page has same text in [[Greek language|Greek]] with its own Latin translation. Underneath these columns there is an [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] version on the left-hand page and a [[Latin]] translation of this on the right-hand side. For printing the [[Hebrew]] text Plantin used among others [[Daniel Bomberg]]'s Hebrew type, which he had received from [[Daniel Bomberg|Bomberg]]'s nephews.<sup>[1]</sup> Volume 5 contains the [[New Testament]] in [[Greek]] and [[Syriac language|Syriac]], each with a [[Latin]] translation, and a translation of the [[Syriac]] into [[Hebrew]]. Volume 6 has the complete Bible in the original [[Hebrew]] and [[Greek]], as well as an interlinear version that has the [[Latin]] translation printed between the lines. 

The last two volumes contain dictionaries ([[Hebrew]]-[[Latin]], [[Greek]]-[[Latin]], [[Syriac]]-[[Aramaic]], grammar rules, list of names, etc.) that were of value to scholars. 

A complete copy of this Bible is on display at the [[Plantin-Moretus Museum]] (the site of the original printing press), including the typefaces which were designed for this project. 

== Sources ==
* Museum guide "Plantin-Moretus Museum" in Antwerp

==External links==
* [http://www.utexas.edu/news/2008/04/29/hrc_plantin_bible/ Harry Ransom Center Acquires Rare Plantin Polyglot Bible]. 29 April 2008. [[University of Texas at Austin]]. Accessed 2 August 2010.

==Notes==

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[[Category:Early printed Bibles]]
[[Category:1568 works]]