Greek Old Testament

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6B The Old Testament According to the Seventy Interpreters, i.e. the Septuagint. Originally Rome, 1587. This edition being a Stereotype Reprint prepared by Leander van Ess for the Tauchnitz publishing house in Leipzig, 1835. Notes Known historically as the Septuagint (often abbreviated as LXX), The Greek Old Testament According to the Seventy Interpreters holds immense importance as the earliest surviving translation of the Hebrew scriptures. Originating in Alexandria, Egypt, during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE, the translation was commissioned to serve the massive population of Greek-speaking Jews living under Ptolemaic rule who had lost their fluency in Hebrew. According to legendary accounts, seventy-two Jewish scholars independently produced identical translations of the Torah in exactly seventy-two days, an event viewed by antiquity as a sign of divine inspiration. This Greek text became entirely foundational for early Christianity; it was the definitive version of the scriptures quoted by the Apostles in the New Testament and served as the primary framework for spreading the Christian faith across the Hellenistic Roman world. From a publishing and collecting standpoint, early or scholarly printings of the Septuagint remain prized academic cornerstones, documenting the crucial linguistic bridge where ancient Near Eastern theology met Western classical philosophy. The printing history of the Bible began in the 1450s in Mainz, Germany, when Johannes Gutenberg used movable metal type to produce his 42-Line Latin Vulgate. This mechanical milestone ended the reliance on hand-copied monastic manuscripts and rapidly accelerated book production across Europe. The Bible quickly became a catalyst for linguistic shifts as scholars moved away from Latin to produce vernacular translations, most notably Martin Luther’s German Bible (1522) and William Tyndale's English New Testament (1526). The English text reached a major stabilization point in 1611 with the publication of the King James Version by Royal Printer Robert Barker. By the 19th century, technological advancements in steam-powered presses, stereotyping, and industrial papermaking allowed international Bible societies to transition the scriptures from a scarce luxury item into the most mass-produced book in global publishing history. Description Vellum binding with bright marbled edges and gilt ornamentation to spine. Green label to spine with gilt lettering. Marbled endpapers and bookplate pastedown to interior board. Some scuffing to boards but overall great condition. Show more