BIBLE. Novum Testamentum. Ex Bibliotheca Regia... Lot 18

BIBLE. Novum Testamentum. Ex Bibliotheca Regia [in Greek]. Paris, Robert Estienne, 1568 [excudebat dated January 1569]. 3 parts in one volume in-16 of (16) ff, 494 pp, (1) blank f., 342 pp, (1) blank f., (20) ff : brown morocco, boards and spine covered with a gilt decoration divided into rhombic and triangular compartments filled with tight vertical and horizontal fillets, small medallion in reserve in the centre of the boards, interior roulette, gilt edges (binding of the beginning of the XVIIth century) Beautiful edition printed in Greek characters. (Renouard, Estienne, p. 171, n° 1.) Brilliant early 17th century binding in morocco, decorated with a surprisingly modern geometrical design. This type of decoration, which can be found on books of piety from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, has been declined in different variants, including those described and reproduced in the catalogue n° 93 of the Pierre Berès bookshop (n° 74, in-8 binding on a 1612 edition of the Psalms of David) and by Mirjam Foot in the Henry Davis Gift catalogue (III, n° 122, in-8 binding on a 1616 edition). A fine, ruled copy that belonged to René-François de Beauvau (1664-1739), Archbishop of Narbonne, with his handwritten bookplate on the title. Bookplate from the libraries of William Loring Andrews and Cortland F. Bishop (I, 1938, no. 258). The copy is preserved in a modern green morocco case.