50. "Biblia adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură" ("The Bible, The Godly Scripture"), zisă și "Biblia de la București" ("Bible from Bucharest"), printed in the time of Șerban Cantacuzino, Bucharest, 1688, translated from Greek into Romanian by Radu and Ștefan Greceanu, final revision by the stolnic Constantin Cantacuzino, rare piece, from the collection of literary critic Șerban Cioculescu, formerly from the collection of Drugănescu

Starting price

EUR 10.000

Sold

EUR 36.250

Session

Wed, 5 July 2023 19:00

The Bible from Bucharest was translated for the first time into Romanian on the initiative of the rulers of the Romanian Country Șerban Cantacuzino (1678-1688) and Constantin Brâncoveanu (1688-1714), who sponsored the printing of the work and who are mentioned on the title page. The work is published in large format, in folio. The text appears as two columns in small Cyrillic letters on each page. The ink used in two colours, black and red. The initials visibly marked can be seen on each page, in black ink. A volume consists of 938 pages and the paper is handmade. The title is rich, framed in a stylized floral border and has a reference to the Greek translation. On the reverse of the title page, there is the period coat of arms of the Romanian Country, the eagle with the cross in its beak, in an oval medallion. The covers are made of leather-covered lime wood and the edge is divided into five registers decorated with stylised vegetal motifs. The covers have been restored, probably in the late 19th Century, and the original leather fragments have been integrated. On the main cover, the Crucifixion scene is shown in a centred medallion, and the centre of the secondary cover is decorated with the probable Resurrection scene. The handwritten inscription can be deciphered: "I, the servant of God, the most sinful of all sinners, have written here in this holy Bible; with the hand of dust and the feather of a goose; for it is true that the hand after death shall be dust, and the feather shall remain; and I pray that if you read it, you will remember me and say this also, because I am the most sinful. God forgive him. 1802 June 15" (illegible signature) Other handwritten notes are found in the white spaces on the right side of the pages, which contain extracts from the text on the page, a kind of reminder underlining. For example: "wonder not (?) at the things of the sinner (inscription 1); "do not say God should forgive him" (inscription 2) "don"t bring the everyman into your house" (inscription 3); "be aware for whom you do good, but not for everyone" (inscription 4); "kneel down to pray" (inscription 5). This copy was printed for the great Gavrilă Drugănescu, dignitary during the reign of Constantin Brâncoveanu.

Dimensions

width 28 cm, height 41 cm

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