Lot 230
Bible; Old Testament; Hebrew
Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 21 September 2023 at 10:00 BST
Description
cum variis lectionibus. Edidit Benjaminus Kennicott. Oxford: e Typographeo Sheldoniano, 1776-80. 2 volumes, large folio (43.6 x 26cm), contemporary mottled calf, sympathetically rebacked with restoration to extremities, xxiii [1] viii 684 [2], [4] 732 129 [7] pp., occasional light browning, volume 1 sig. 7D spotted [ESTC T147508]
Footnote
Note: First edition of a major scholarly recension of the Hebrew Bible, which established its compiler, the Oxford Hebraist Benjamin Kennicott (1718-1783), as a scholar of international standing in Enlightenment Europe. 'The greater part of [Kennicott's] life was spent in the collation of Hebrew manuscripts with the object of producing a definitive original text of the Old Testament ... With his formidable knowledge of Syriac, early Latin, the Septuagint, and the Samaritan Pentateuch it was recognized that he was very well qualified for the task ... Kennicott's labours culminated in the production of his Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum cum variis lectionibus, the first volume published at Oxford in 1776, the second in 1780. These were two superb folios complete with parallel Samaritan and Hebrew texts and apparatus criticus ... The scale of textual criticism (he had consulted and collated 615 manuscript versions and 52 printed editions) gave Kennicott a European reputation that transcended national and denominational boundaries, his labours constituting a milestone "in a more systematic and comprehensive examination of the formation of the biblical text and canon by subsequent scholars"' (ODNB).