6B New and Old Testaments together. London: R. Nortonus, 1680. In Latin. Notes The history of the printed Bible began with Johannes Gutenberg’s monumental advancements in the field of movable type in Mainz, Germany, around 1455. This historic event launched a publishing revolution that transitioned the Christian Scriptures from painstakingly hand-copied medieval manuscripts into a standardized, mass-distributed medium. Initially, early printers focused almost exclusively on replicating the Latin Vulgate—the traditional text of Western Christendom. However, the dawn of the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century dramatically shifted the landscape of biblical publication. Driven by humanism and theological reform, scholars like Desiderius Erasmus began publishing the original Greek and Hebrew source texts, sparking a massive wave of vernacular translations across Europe. By the late 16th and 17th centuries, Bible publication had evolved from an elite academic pursuit into a tightly regulated global industry. In England, the crown tightly controlled scriptural printing through monopolies granted to the King’s Printer, resulting in historic vernacular landmarks like the Geneva Bible (1560) and the King James Version (1611). Concurrently, continental Europe established massive print hubs in cities like Lyon, Antwerp, and Amsterdam, turning out countless variations of the scriptures to satisfy different theological divides. Bibles were printed in massive, ornate folio editions for church pulpits, but they were also increasingly miniaturized into portable pocket sizes for personal daily devotion, forever reshaping global literacy, language, and culture. The 1680 London printing of the Biblia Sacra stands as an exceptional artifact of late-17th-century English printing and Protestant biblical scholarship. Rather than using the Catholic Church’s traditional Latin Vulgate, this specific duodecimo (pocket-sized) edition features the celebrated Latin translation made directly from the original Hebrew and Greek by Protestant scholars Immanuel Tremellius and Franciscus Junius, paired with Theodore Beza's New Testament. The volume was produced by Roger Norton (Latinized on the title page as R. Nortonus), who held the prestigious title of Regius in Latinis (King’s Printer in Latin). Sold through the prominent bookseller Nathaniel Ponder at the sign of the Peacock in London, this beautifully executed, single-column volume was explicitly tailored for English university students, scholars, and clergy who required a reliable, portable Latin text for rigorous theological study during the reign of King Charles II. Description Contemporary black morocco binding. Upper and lower covers decorated with gilt panels and floral motifs ant the corners. Spine with four raised bands and attractively decorated compartments in gilt. All edges gilt. Marbles endpaper pastedowns. Head of spine is a little bumped and rubbed with a small cup to top edge. Corners worn and bumped. Some sizing and browning. Engraved general title page. Front free endpaper is stamped with “Cornwell House” and the following leaf is inscribed “Ex Dino amicissimi Jos. Carlton” and underneath are two addition inscriptions. One from Ovid and the other Cicero. Very good condition overall.
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