292

Bible. New Testament in Latin and Hebrew. Giovanni Battista Jona, trans. (d. 1678)

Evangelia Novi Testamenti Ex Latino in Hebraicum Sermonem Versa.

Rome: Typis S.C. Prop. Fidei, 1668.
First edition of Jona's translation, folio; title page printed within typographical border with large woodcut printer's device; text printed in Latin and Hebrew in parallel columns throughout; woodcut text illustrations of each evangelist with their iconic symbol at the beginning of his book, each signed L.P. in the cut; bound in half contemporary parchment and parchment-covered boards, worn; some leaves browned due to chemical makeup of the paper's original production; lacking half-title; colophon with contemporary inscription of an owner from Naples whose last name may be di Aquino; 12 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.

Jona was an esteemed Hebrew professor and Jewish convert to catholicism from Galilee who was also called Jehuda ben Jozchok Jona and Rabbi Jonas of Safed. Jona was inspired to render the text of the New Testament into Hebrew himself after finding a different translation attempt "whose style he found stiff and inept, so that 'I wondered as I read it whether the translator was unfamiliar with the holy language, or whether the Jews had translated it so poorly intending to degrade the Gospel in the eyes of the reader.'" (Quoted from Pinchas E. Lapide's Hebrew in the Church: The Foundations of Jewish-Christian Dialogue, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984.)

  • Condition: [†]3, ††4, †††4, ††††2, A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Bbb4, Ccc6.

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