Item details: [Greek title] Novum Testamentum. Juxta Exemplar Millianum. Typis Johannis Baskerville.
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£ 700.00
Bible, Greek New Testament:
[Greek title] Novum Testamentum. Juxta Exemplar Millianum. Typis Johannis Baskerville.
Imprint: Oxonii [Oxford]: E Typographeo Clarendoniano. Sumptibus Academiae., 1763
Binding: Hardback
8vo. pp. [ii], 672 Greek text, without half title. Occasional marginalia (Biblical references) in a neat early hand, one or two trivial instances of spotting but generally a clean example. Recent green morocco, gilt, by the Cottage Bindery, Bath, a.e.g.
The quarto and octavo Greek New Testaments of 1763 printed by Baskerville for the Oxford University Press are ‘beautiful editions’, according to Dibdin, and the only books printed by Baskerville in Greek. The text generally follows John Mill’s famous edition of 1707. The type itself is described by Dibdin as “large and distinct” and “elegant”. Baskerville was clearly influenced by Alexander Wilson’s revolutionary Double Pica Greek type, which had been specially cut for the Foulis Press Homer of 1756-58. Both type founders rejected the space-saving contractions and ligatures which had been faithfully preserved from an earlier era in Claude Garammond’s Grec du Roi and its descendants. Baskerville’s Greek type probably had some influence on Bodoni and Didot, but it was not revived., Gaskell Add. 2; Darlow & Moule 4756; Dibdin I, 157.
Stock number:6318.
Dealer's details and sales conditions: Bryars & Bryars