Justin Martyr, Saint. [Works in Greek] Ex bibliotheca Regia ...

Estimate

£1,000 - £2,000

Justin Martyr, Saint. [Works in Greek] Ex bibliotheca Regia ... Lutetiae, ex officina Roberti Stephani typographi regii, Regiis typis. (with:] Beati Justini Philosophi & Martyris Opera Omnia, quae adhuc invenire potuerunt, id est, quae ex Regis Galliae Bibliotheca prodierunt. Ioachimo Perionio Benedictino Cormoeriaceno interprete...
Paris: Iacobum Dupuys, è regione collegii Cameracensis, sub insigni Samaritanae. 1554.
Folio, the two related works in one volume, the second in six parts with separate title pages but published as one work; pp. (4leaves), 311, [1], (2]; (7leaves], blank, 127; 67; 35; 91; 80; 49, [1] privilege, [2] blank,
(12leaves] index, [1] errata.
The first work set in Greek throughout in Garamond's 'grecs du roi' (see below); a very few MS notes in an early hand in Greek in the first work; more numerous notes in at least two early hands towards the beginning of the second work; small wormhole in top right hand corner towards the end of the second work, else a very fine, clean and large copy in early calf, probably French and perhaps dating from later in the 16th or early in the 17th century; spine lettered in gilt. (covers, spine, and joints, rubbed, expertly repaired and refurbished.) 340mm x 230mm.
Editio princeps of the works in Greek of St. Justin, martyr of the second century and an important figure in early Christian apologetics as the first thinker to seek to reconcile the claims of faith and reason. Robert Estienne's text was taken from a manuscript in the Royal Library at Fontainebleau, and in 'grecs du roi', the fine Greek face designed for Estienne by Claude Garamona.
This edition had already been announced by Robert in the preface to his 1550 Greek Testament, but it was not published until after his final departure for Geneva: this and the epitome of Dio Cassius (also from a MS in the Royal Library) were the last books to bear his Paris imprint. Schreiber comments that the present text 'was a most important contribution to the study of Christian antiquity, and the sensation which its publication created among the learned was still remembered by Henri Etienne over 40 years later, in the preface to his own edition of Pseudo-Justin's Letter to Diognetus (1592). The Greek works of Justin are here bound with the Latin translation by Joachim Perionius or Périon (14992-1559), a publication which must have been inspired by Estienne's edition, and which complements it very naturally.