First Printed Classic

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1070, 6 September 1930, Page 17

First Printed Classic

There is, too, a first edition of the first Greek classic ever printed, “Aesop’s Fables,” ■which “was produced in Milan; -and ranking with it is a very rare work, the first portion of the Scripture printed in Greek. Bibles and commentaries on’religion naturally form a large portion of the first printed books and the Auckland collection possesses fifteen specimens of Bibles and testaments, as well as other works like St. Augustine’s exposition of the Epistles of Paul; Pope Gregory’s “Book of Epistoles,” a Dutch translation of the Vulgate version, the works of Thomas Aquinas, Nicholas de Lyra’s Commentaries (which are said to have been the precursor of the Reformation); the Ximines Polyglot Bible (the oldest of that family, issued in six volumes in 1520 and preserved yi its original vellum binding); the Antwerp Polyglot (once classed as the eighth wonder of the world and sent out by the press of the famous Piantin of Antwerp; of the issue of 500 sets half were lost in a wreck of a ship carrying them to Spain); Lefevre’s Commentaries on the four evangelists (suppressed at its printing in 1526, it has the bookplate of the Duke of Sussex); Martin Luther’s Works (4 vols. in the original oak boards and stamped pigskin binding; a first edition *hat was published in 1556-S); and Castiglione’s edition of the Latin Bible, dedicated to Edward VI. but prohibited iu 1554. These are but a few* of the works of the giants which Aucklanders now own. •