Lot 70
Benjamin Kennicott – A Critical Edition of the Bible – Oxford, 1776-1780
Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum, cum variis lectionibus. Edidit Benjaminus Kennicott. Oxford: E. Typographeo Clarendonaino, 1776-1780. With: Dissertatio generalis in Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum cum variis lectionibus. Oxford, 1780 (separate title page). Two volumes. Latin and Hebrew.
A critical edition of the Bible, edited by Benjamin Kennicott (1718-1783), an English churchman and Hebraist. The entire Hebrew text of the Bible, printed in double columns; the critical apparatus, with readings from different manuscripts, printed bellow the text. Throughout the Pentateuch the variants of the Samaritan text are given in the left column. The first volume includes the "Dissertatio generalis" (general dissertation), with an account of the manuscripts collated for this edition.
This edition of the bible is one of the earliest critical editions, based on many years of research and collation of various manuscripts.
Vol. I: XXIII, [1 blank page], VIII, 129, [1 blank page], [6], 684, [1] pp. Vol. II: [4], 732 pp, 44 cm. Light-colored, high-quality paper. Good condition. A few stains. Creases and small tears to margins of several leaves. New bindings, with restored parts of the original boards laid down. Blemishes to bindings.
