[PARIS POLYGLOT BIBLE] Pro sacro-sanctae editionis Hebraicae authentica veritate oratio apologetica habita X Cal. Martij in nouo Franciae Auditorio.

Paris : s.n., 1646. Octavo (170 x 110 mm), contemporary full vellum; pp. 52. [BOUND WITH] Gabrielis Sionitae. Presbyteri Maronitae … ad Abramvm Echellensem Maronitam. Commonitorum apologeticum. Paris : s.n., 1648. pp. 66; [AND] Valeriani de Flavigny … Epistola in qua de ingenti Bibliorum opere quod nuper Lutetiae Parisiorum hebraïce, graece, latine, chaldaïce, samaritane, syre et arabice prodiit, ac ei praefixa praefatione, ad… Franciscum de Fleury ... [Paris] : s.n., 1646. pp. 78; [AND] Valeriani de Flavigny … Epistola altera, in qua iterum de ingenti Bibliorum opere septilingui, quod non ita pridem Lutetiae Parisiorum prodiit, ad … Franciscum de Fleury … … [Paris] : s.n., 1646. pp. 19; [AND] Valeriani de Flavigny … Epistola tertia, in qua de libello Ruth syriaco, quem Abrahamus Echellensis insertum esse voluit ingenti isti Bibliorum operi, quod non ita pridem Lutetiae Parisiorum hebraïce, graece, latine, chaldaïce, samaritane, syre et arabice prodiit, ad… Abrahamum Echellensem, ut tandem aliquando minus de se quam de aliis sentiat. [Paris] : s.n., 1647. pp. 21; [AND] Valeriani de Flavigny … Epistola quarta, in qua solidissime confutantur mendacia, fraudes, calumniae, convitia, cavillationes et imposturae, quibus Abrahamus Echellensis eluere conatus est omnes illas sordes et maculas quas ineptissime passim aspersit libello Ruth syriaco et loco illi Genes. 4. v. 7 : Nonne si bene egeris, recipies ; simulque sacrosancta veritas hebraïca strenue defenditur atque propugnatur, ad… Abrahamum Echellensem, ut tandem aliquando mentem sanam in corpore sano possideat. [Paris] : s.n., 1648. pp. 416. Text in Latin, with some Greek and Hebrew; binding sound, very clean throughout.

All six works gathered together in this unique binding pertain to the controversy surrounding Lejay’s Polyglot Bible, and each is very scarce in its own right. Five comprise the writings of French Biblical scholar and linguist Valérien de Flavigny (d. 1674), who was appointed professor of Hebrew at the Collège de France in 1630. They form part of Flavigny’s critical response to the Paris Polyglot Bible, which had been published in 1645. Also known as the Paris Polyglot, this Bible was acclaimed for the beauty of its fonts for which new metal type was cast in Aramaic, Samaritan, and Arabic. It contained the first printed texts of the Syriac Old Testament edited by two Maronite scholars, Gabriel Sionita and Abraham Ecchellensis, both professors of Syriac and Arabic at the Collège de France (the latter being solely responsible for the editing of the book of Ruth), and of the Samaritan Pentateuch in a version by Jean Morin (Morinus). It contains also a compilation made from several Arabic versions.

The first work by Flavigny is the text of his lecture on the Hebrew Bible delivered in Paris on 10 March 1646; while in his four epistolae of 1646, 1647 and 1648, Flavigny argues vehemently against the ideas and Biblical interpretations of his contemporary, Abraham Ecchellensis (1605-1664) – specifically, those in evidence in his Syriac Book of Ruth and in his translations of the Bible into Arabic.

The sixth work, printed in 1648, is an apologia by Gabriel Sionita addressed to Abraham Ecchellensis.

No copies of any of these six works traced in Rare Book Hub.