Pagninus, as reformed by Arias Montanus, the principal editor of this noble undertaking. The sixth, seventh, and eighth volumes are filled with lexicons and grammars of the various languages in which the Scriptures are printed, together with indexes, and a treatise on sacred antiquities. The Hebrew text is said to be compiled from the Complutensian and Bomberg editions.

3. Biblia. 1. Hebraica. 2. Samaritana. 3. Chaldaica. 4. Græca. 5. Syriaca. 6. Latina. 7. Arabica. Lutetiæ Parisiorum, excudebat Antonius Vitré. 1628-1645. 10 vols. large folio.

This edition, which is extremely magnificent, contains all that is inserted in the Complutensian and Antwerp Polyglotts, with the addition of a Syriac and Arabic version of the greatest part of the Old, and the entire New Testament. The Samaritan Pentateuch, with a Samaritan version, was printed for the first time in this Polyglott, the expenses of which ruined the editor, M. Le Jay. His learned associates were Philippus Aquinas, Jacobus Morinus, Abraham Echellensis, Gabriel Sionita, &c. The Hebrew text is that of the Antwerp Polyglott. There are extant copies of Le Jay's edition of the Polyglott Bible, under the following title, viz. Biblia Alexandrina Heptaglotta auspiciis S. D. Alexandri VII. anno sessionis ejus xii. feliciter inchoati. Lutetia Parisiorum prostant apud Joannem Jansonium a Waesberge, Johannem Jacobi Chipper, Elisæum Weirstraet, 1666.

4. Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, complectentia Textus Originales, Hebraicum cum Pentateucho Samaritano, Chaldaicum, Græcum, Versionumque antiquarum Samaritanæ, Græca LXXII Interpretum, Chaldaicæ, Syriacæ, Arabicæ, Æthiopicæ, Vulgatæ Latinæ, quicquid comparari poterat.... Edidit Brianus Walton, S. T. D. Imprimebat Thomas Roycroft. Londini, 1657, 6 vols. large folio.

Though less magnificent than the Paris Polyglott, this of Bishop Walton is, in all other respects, preferable; being more ample and more commodious. Nine languages are used in it, though no one book of the Bible is printed in so many. In the New Testament, the four Gospels are in six languages; the other books, only in fire; those of Judith and the Maccabees, only in three. The Septuagint version is printed from the edition printed at Rome in 1587, which exhibits the text of the Vatican manuscript. The Latin is the Vulgate of Clement VIII. The Chaldee paraphrase is more complete than in any former publication. The London Polyglott also has an interlineary Latin version of the Hebrew text; and some parts of the Bible are printed in Ethiopic and Persian, none of which are found in any preceding Polyglott.

The first volume, besides very learned and useful Prolegomena, contains the Pentateuch. Every sheet exhibits, at one view, 1st, The Hebrew Text, with Montanus's Latin version, very correctly printed: 2. The same verses in the Vulgate Latin: 3. The Greek version of the Septuagint, according to the Vatican MS. with a literal Latin Translation by Flaminus Nobilis, and the various readings of the Alexandrian MS. added at the bottom of the column: 4. The Syriac version, with a collateral Latin translation: 5. The Targum, or Chaldee Paraphrase, of Onkelos, with a Latin translation: 6. The Hebræo-Samaritan text, which is nearly the same with the unpointed Hebrew, only the character is different; and the Samaritan version, which differs vastly from the other as to the language, though the sense is pretty nearly the same; and therefore one Latin translation (with a few notes added at the bottom of the column,) serves for both: 7. The Arabic version, with a collateral Latin translation, which in general agrees with the Septuagint.

This first volume contains, or should contain, a portrait of Bishop Walton, engraved by Lombart; and a frontispiece, together with three plates relating to Solomon's temple, all engraved by Hollar. There are also two plates containing sections of Jerusalem, &c. and a chart of the Holy Land. These are inserted in Capellus's Treatise on the temple. That part of the Prolegomena, in this volume, which was written by Bishop Walton, was commodiously printed in octavo, at Leipsic, in 1777, by Prefessor Dathe. It is a treasure of sacred criticism.

The second volume comprises the historical books in the same languages as are above enumerated, with the exception of the Samaritan (which is confined to the Pentateuch) and of the Targum of Rabbi Joseph (surnamed the blind) on the Books of Chronicles, which was not discovered till after the Polyglott was in the press. It has since been published in a separate form, as is noticed in page 118.

The third volume comprehends all the poetic and prophetic books from Job to Malachi, in the same languages as before, only that there is an Ethiopic version of the book of Psalms, which is so near akin to the Septuagint, that the same Latin translation serves for both, with a few exceptions, which are noted in the margin.

The fourth contains all the Apocryphal Books, in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Arabic, with a two-fold Hebrew text of the book of Tobit; the first from Paul Fagius, the second from Sebastian Munster. After the Apocrypha there is a three-fold Targum of the Pentateuch: the first is in Chaldee, and is ascribed to Jonathan ben Uzziel: the second is in Chaldee also: it takes in only select parts of the Law, and is commonly called the Jerusalem Targum: the third is in Persic, the work of one Jacob Tawus, or Toosee, and seems to be a pretty literal version of the Hebrew text. Each of these has a collateral Latin translation. The two first, though they contain many fables, are exceedingly useful, because they explain many words and customs, the meaning of which is to be found no where else; and the latter will be found very useful to a student in the Persian language, though it contains many obsolete phrases, and the language is by no means in the pure Shirazian dialect.

The fifth volume includes all the books of the New Testament. The various languages are here exhibited at one view, as in the others. The Greek text stands at the head, with Montanus's interlineary Latin translation; the Syriac next; the Persic third; the Vulgate fourth; the Arabic fifth; and the Ethiopic sixth. Each of the oriental versions has a collateral Latin translation. The Persic version only takes in the four Gospels; and for this, the Pars Altera, or Persian Dictionary, in Castell's Lexicon, was peculiarly calculated.

The sixth volume is composed of various readings and critical remarks on all the preceding versions, and concludes with an explanation of all the proper names, both Hebrew and Greek, in the Old and New Testaments. The characters used for the several oriental versions are clear and good; the Hebrew is rather the worst. The simple reading of a text in the several versions often throws more light on the meaning of the sacred writer, than the best commentators which can be met with. This work sells at from twenty-five pounds to seventy guineas, according to the difference of condition. Many copies are ruled with red lines, which is a great help in reading, because it distinguishes the different texts better, and such copies ordinarily sell for three or four guineas more than the others.

In executing this great and splendid work, Bishop Walton was assisted by Dr. Edmund Castell, Dr. Tho. Hyde, Dr. Pocock, Dr. Lightfoot, Mr. Alexander Huish, Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Samuel Clarke, Louis de Dieu, and other eminently learned men. It was begun in October 1653, and completed in 1657; the first volume was finished in September 1654; the second in July 1655; the third in July 1656; and the fourth, fifth, and sixth, in 1657, three years before the Restoration. (The Parisian Polyglott was seventeen years in the press!)

This work was published by subscription, under the patronage of Oliver Cromwell, who permitted the paper to be imported duty-free; but the Proctector dying before it was finished, Bishop Walton cancelled two leaves of the preface, in which he had made honourable mention of his patron, and others were printed containing compliments to Charles II. and some pretty severe invectives against republicans. Hence has arisen the distinction of republican and loyal copies. The former are the most valued. Dr. A. Clarke and Mr. Butler have both pointed out (especially the former) the variations between these two editions. For a long time, it was disputed among bibliographers, whether any dedication was ever prefixed to the London Polyglott. There is, however, a dedication in one of the copies in the Royal Library at Paris, and another was discovered a few years since, which was reprinted by the late Mr. Lunn, in large folio, to bind up with other copies of the Polyglott; it is also reprinted in the Classical Journal, vol. iv. pp. 355-361. In the first volume of Pott's and Ruperti's Sylloge Commentationum Theologicarum,

1 Concerning these, as well as the literary history of the London Polyglott, the reader will find much and very interesting information in the Rev. H. J. Todd's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Right Rev. Brian Walton, D. D., Lord Bishop of Chester, editor of the London Polyglott Bible. With notices of his coadjutors in that illustrious work; of the cultivation of oriental learning, in this country, preceding and during their time; and of the authorised English version of the Bible, to a projected revision of which, Dr. Walton and some of his assistants in the Polyglott were appointed. To which is added, Dr. Walton's own vindication of the London Polyglott. London, 1821, in 2 vols. 8vo.

(pp. 100-137.) there is a collation of the Greek and other versions, as printed in the London Polyglott, with the Hebrew text of the Prophet Micah, accompanied with some explanations by Professor Paulus. To complete the London Polyglott, the following publications should be added, viz.

1. Paraphrasis Chaldaica in librum priorem et posteriorem chronicorum. Auctore Rabbi Josepho, rectore Academiæ in Syria. Nunc demum a manuscripto Cantabrigiensi descripta, ac cum versione Latina in lucem missam, a Davide Wilkins. Amstelodami, 4to. 1715. The manuscript from which this work was taken, was written A. D. 1477: it was discovered by Dr. Samuel Clarke in the university of Cambridge; and, besides the Chaldee Paraphrase on the Books of Chronicles, contained the Books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, with a targum or paraphrase on each. It is elegantly printed, the Chaldee text being on the right hand page, and the Latin translation on the left. The Chaldee has the vowel points; and both the text and version are divided into verses. This work is now of extreme rarity.

2. Dr. Castell's Lexicon Heptaglotton; of which an account is given infra, in the Appendix, No. III. Sect. I.

The purchaser of the London Polyglott should also procure Dr. John Owen's Considerations on the Polyglott, 8vo. 1658: Bishop Walton's Reply, entitled The Considerator considered, &c. 8vo. 1659 and (a work of much more importance than either) Walton's Introductio ad lectionem Linguarum Orientalium, Hebraica, Chaldaica, Samaritanæ, Syriaca, Arabica, Persica Ethiopica, Armenica, Copticæ, &c. 18mo. London, 1615. This little tract,' says Dr. Adam Clarke, 'is really well written, and must have been very useful at the time it was published. It does not contain grammars of the different languages mentioned in the title, but only the different alphabets, and directions how to read them. At the end of his exposition of the alphabet of each language, is a specimen in the proper character, each line of which is included between two others; the first of which is a literal Latin version of the original, and the second, the letters of the original expressed by Italics. Short as these examples are, they are of great utility to a learner. This little work is of considerable importance, as the harbinger of this inestimable Polyglott.'2

Bishop Walton's Polyglott having long been extremely scarce and dear, it has been the wish of biblical students for many years, that it should be reprinted. In 1797, the Rev. Josiah Pratt issued from the press, A Prospectus, with specimens, of a New Polyglott Bible in Quarto, for the use of English Students, and in 1799, another Prospectus, with specimens, of an Octavo Polyglott Bible; but, for want of encouragement, the design of the estimable editor has not been carried into execution. A similar fate has attended The Plan and Specimen of BIBLIA POLYGLOTTA BRITANNICA, or an enlarged and improved edition of the London Polyglott Bible, with Castell's Heptaglott Lexicon, which were published and circulated by the Rev. Adam Clarke, LL. D. F. S. A. in 1811. The reader may see them reprinted in the Classical Journal (where, however, no notice is taken of the author of the plan), vol. iv. pp. 493–497.

5. Biblia Sacra Quadrilinguia Veteris Testamenti Hebraici, cum Versione e regione positis, utpote versione Græca LXX Interpretum ex codice manuscripto Alexandrino, a J. Ern. Grabio primum evulgata Item versione Latina Sebast. Schimidii noviter revisa et textui Hebræo accuratius accommodata et Germanica beati Lutheri, ex ultima beati viri revisione et editione 1544-45 expressa, adjectis textui Hebræo Notis Masorethicis et Græcæ Versioni Lectionibus Codicis Vaticani; notis philologicis et exegeticis aliis, ut et summariis capitum ac locis parallelis locupletissimis ornata. Accurante M Christ. Reineccio. Lipsia, 1750, 3 vols. folio.

The comparative cheapness of this neatly and accurately printed work renders it a valuable substitute for the preceding larger Polyglotts. Dr. A. Clarke, who has read over the whole of the Hebrew and Chaldee text, with the exception of

1 For a more particular account of the London Polyglott, we refer the reader to Dr. Clarke's Bibliographical Dictionary, vol. i. pp. 248-270; vol. ii. pp. 1–12; Mr. Butler's Hore Biblica, vol. i. pp. 138-149; and Mr. Dibdin's Introduction to the Knowledge of the Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics, vol. i. pp. 13— 27, from which publications the above account is abridged.

2 Bibliographical Dictionary, vol. ii, p. 11.

part of the Pentateuch, pronounces it to be one of the most correct extant. Unhappily it is not often seen in commerce.

6. Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, Textus Archetypos Versionesque præcipuas ab Ecclesia antiquitùs receptas complectentia. 4to. et 8vo. Londini, 1821.

The great rarity and consequent high price of all former Polyglotts, which render them for the most part inaccessible to biblical students, induced Mr. Bagster, the publisher, to undertake this beautiful and (what to biblical students is of the utmost importance) cheap edition, which forms one volume in quarto, or four volumes in small octavo. It comprises the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament, the Vulgate Latin, and the authorised English versions of the entire Bible, the original Greek text of the New Testament, and the venerable Peschito or Old Syriac version of it. The types, from which this Polyglott is printed, are entirely new, and, together with the paper, of singular beauty. The Hebrew text is printed from the celebrated edition of Vander Hooght (noticed in p. 121); the Samaritan Pentateuch is given from Dr. Kennicott's edition of the Hebrew Bible, and is added by way of Appendix. The Septuagint is printed from Bos's edition of the Vatican text; and at the end of the Old Testament there are given the various readings of the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuchs, together with the Masoretic notes, termed Keri and Ketib, the various lections of the Alexandrian manuscript as edited by Dr. Grabe, and the Apocryphal chapters of the book of Esther. (See a notice of them infra, Vol. IV. Part I. Chap. VIII. § V.) The New Testament is printed from Mill's edition of the Textus Receptus, with the whole of the important readings given by Griesbach in his edition of 1805 (noticed in the following section.) The Peschito or Old Syriac version is printed from Widmanstadt's edition, published at Vienna in 1555, collated with the very accurate edition lately executed under the auspices of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The Apocalypse, and such of the Epistles as are not found in the Peschito, are given from the Philoxenian or new Syriac version. The Apocalypse is printed from Louis De Dieu's edition from the Elzevir press (Lug. Bat. 1627,) and the Epistles from the edition of the celebrated orientalist, Dr. Pocock. (Lug. Bat. 1680.) The text of the Latin Vulgate version is taken from the edition of Pope Clement VIII. The authorised English version is accompanied with marginal renderings and a new and very valuable selection of parallel texts. Peculiar attention has been paid to ensure the general accuracy of every branch of this Polyglott edition of the Bible, which is confided to gentlemen of acknowledged learning and industry; and prolegomena are preparing by the Rev. Samuel Lee, M. A. Professor of Arabic in the university of Cambridge.

This work is neatly and correctly printed in the following forms: - FIRST, in one volume quarto, presenting the original with the above-mentioned versions at one view except the Samaritan text of the Pentateuch, which forms an Appendix. SECONDLY, in octavo volumes, each being a complete work, which may be separately purchased in succession, as occasion may require; and which, together, forms a complete Polyglott Bible in four small volumes. THIRDLY, a number of copies is printed, combining the original texts with one or other of the respective versions; and others containing similar combinations of the versions only. This arrangement is adopted for the convenience of biblical students, to whom it thus offers the Holy Scriptures in a portable form, and containing such versions only as the nature of their studies may require. A Scripture Harmony, or concordance of 500,000 parallel passages, is printed in various sizes, agreeing page for page with the Polyglott. We have been thus particular in giving the above description of this publication, on account of its intrinsic value and utility. The Hebrew of the quarto copies is pointed. The octavo copies may be procured, with the Hebrew, pointed or not, at the option of the purchasers.

1 The publisher of the valuable Polyglott Bible above noticed, in 1819 issued from the press an octoglott edition of the Liturgy of the Anglican church, in one quarto volume, which may justly be pronounced one of the finest specimens of typography that ever issued from the British press. The eight languages, printed in this edition, are the English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Antient Greek, Modern Greek, and Latin. The English text is given from a copy of the Oxford Edition of the Common Prayer Book. The French version is modern, and is well known to most readers of that language, having frequently been printed, and received with general approbation. The Psalms are printed from the Basle Edition

Several editions of the Bible are extant, in two or three languages, called Diglotts and Triglotts, as well as Polyglott editions of particular parts of the Scriptures. For an account of these, we are compelled to refer the reader to the Bibliotheca Sacra of Le Long and Masch, and the Bibliographical Dictionary of Dr. Clarke, already cited. A complete account of all these Polyglott editions is a desideratum in English literature.

Of the Diglotts or editions in two languages, the following are chiefly worthy of notice, viz.

1. Biblia Sacra Hebraica, cum interlineari interpretatione Latina Xantis Pagnini: accessit Bibliorum pars, quæ Hebraicè non reperitur, item Novum Testamentum, Græcè, cum Vulgata Interpretatione Latina Studio Benedicti Ariæ Montani. Antwerpiæ, 1572, 1584. Geneva, 1609, 1619, (with a new title only.) Lipsia, 1657, folio.

The edition of 1572 forms the sixth volume of the Antwerp Polyglott (p. 115. supra,) as it is the first, so it is the best edition. The octavo editions, ex officina Plantiniana Raphelengii (Lugduni Batavorum), 1599 or 1610-1613, in nine volumes, are of very little value. In the folio editions above noticed, the Latin word is placed above the Hebrew and Greek words, to which they belong. The Latin version of Xantes or Santes Pagninus is corrected by Montanus, and his learned coadjutors, Raphelenge, and others.

2. Biblia Hebraica, i. e. Vetus Testamentum, seu Hagiographia Canonici Veteris nempe Testamenti Libri, que originario nobis etiamnum ore leguntur, ex Hebraico in Latinum ad litteram versi, adjectâ editione Vulgatâ Hebraicè et Latinè, cura et studio Ludovici de Biel, e Societate Jesu. Viennæ, 1743. 4 vols. 8vo.

This is an elegant edition, little known in this country, but in many respects highly valuable. It contains the Hebrew, and two Latin versions, that of the Vulgate edition in 1592, and that of Arias Montanus. It is ornamented with vignettes, and the initial letters, which are well engraved on copper, represent some fact of sacred history, to which the immediate subject is applicable.

3. The Old Testament, English and Hebrew, with remarks, critical and grammatical, on the Hebrew, and corrections of the English. By Anselm Bayley, LL. D. London, 1774. 4 vols. 8vo.

The Hebrew text is printed in long lines on the left hand page; and the authorised English version, on the right hand page, divided into two columns. The critical notes, which are very few, are placed under the English text. The Hebrew text is accompanied, throughout, with the Keri and Ketib; but all the accents, &c. are omitted, except the athnach, which answers to our colon, and the soph of Ostervald's Bible. The Italian is taken from the edition of A. Montucci and L. Valletti, published in 1796, but revised throughout, and its orthography corrected. The Psalms are copied from the Bible of Diodati. The German translation, by the Rev. Dr. Küper (Chaplain of his Majesty's German Chapel, St. James's), is entirely new, except the Psalms, which are taken from Luther's German Version of the Scriptures. The Spanish, by the Rev. Blanco White, is for the most part new. The Psalms are printed from Padre Scio's great Spanish Bible, published at Madrid in 1807, in sixteen volumes. The translation into the Antient Greek language is that executed by Dr. Duport (A. D. 1665), who was Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge. The Psalms are from the Septuagint. The Modern Greek is an entirely new translation by Mr. A. Calbo, a learned native Greek, of the island of Zante. And the Latin version is nearly a reprint of the edition which was first printed by W. Bowyer in 1720, with some alterations and additions by the present editor (John Carey, LL. D.), sometimes taken from the translations of Mr. Thomas Parsel, the fourth edition of which was published in 1727. The Psalms are from the Vulgate.

The utility of this work is considerably increased by its being capable of being procured (like the Polyglott Bible above described) either in single or in combined portions, containing any one or more languages, at the option of the purchasers.