Biblia sacra

2 bound volumes
Rare edition of the Latin Protestant bible with St Jerome’s commentaries, specially conceived for the students of the University of Tübingen and more particularly those of the Klosterschulen (or convent schools) in the Duchy of Wurtemberg (this was the first Bible printed in the Duchy).
40 lines per page with repeating initials. One subsidiary title for the Prophets and another for the New Testament, all with printer’s device.
A great many contemporary ink underlinings to text as well as a manuscript list of the prophets on the title of volume two and a summary of the different parts on an endpaper of the first. The typographical elegance of the work is worth mentioning, being remarkably spacious for a Bible: title pages, margins, alternating Roman and italic letter, and so on.
Not in the Bibliothèque Nationale in France as well as the British and Bodleian Libraries and British catalogues; there are, however, several copies in Swiss, Austrian and German libraries. The various bibliographies of Protestant literature make no mention of this edition, no doubt because it follows the text of the Latin Vulgate, whereas the Protestant mission was to retranslate the Greek manuscripts after the example of Erasmus (who did not, however, go over to Luther – despite being asked – though his translation was often used by the Protestant movement).
Contemporary arabesque gilt vellum, the spine gilt-tooled with animal and floral roulettes (hares, birds, foxes, etc.) and fleurons, titled in ink. Covers with several gilt frames and arabesques to corners, as well as a large lozenge-shaped central fleuron. All edges gilt and pricked (forming leaves), revealing contemporary leather bookmarks. The first hundred copies of this bible were bound with the arms of the Duchy of Wurtemberg, with the next four hundred in this binding. The vellum a little stained, with two small angular yellow patches. The gilding mostly tarnished or rubbed.  A few miniscule wormholes to initial leaves of first volume and two small light wormholes to binding of volume two. Light angular dampstaining. Very light scattered spotting.
An attractive copy (despite some small flaws) of this remarkable and historic binding. 
Author of a number of theological commentaries, the Lutheran theologian Johannes Brenz (1499-1570) produced a remarkable Bible which - unlike Luther’s Bible - had only a rather limited circulation (surviving copies are therefore rare). The text it follows is the Latin Vulgate of Wolrab’s Lepizig edition of 1544 (which was itself based on Estienne’s edition of 1540). Brenz was no translator, despite the fact that he was one of the most eminent Bible scholars of the 16^th century, especially among Protestants – alongside Luther, Calvin, and Bullinger. Brenz organized the Church in Wurtemberg, popularizing through his preaching and commentaries the Biblical theology of the Wittemberg group, the source of the Reformation. His Bible was an evangelical tool, unique within the Reformation movement in being based on the text of the Latin Vulgate.
Ex-libris of Paul Schmidt to endpapers.