part of the Pentateuch, pronounces it to be one of the most correct extant. Unhappily it is not often seen in commerce.

6. Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, Textus Archetypos Versionesque præcipuas ab Ecclesia antiquitùs receptas complectentia. 4to. et 8vo. Londini, 1821.

The great rarity and consequent high price of all former Polyglotts, which render them for the most part inaccessible to biblical students, induced Mr. Bagster, the publisher, to undertake this beautiful and (what to biblical students is of the utmost importance) cheap edition, which forms one volume in quarto, or four volumes in small octavo. It comprises the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament, the Vulgate Latin, and the authorised English versions of the entire Bible, the original Greek text of the New Testament, and the venerable Peschito or Old Syriac version of it. The types, from which this Polyglott is printed, are entirely new, and, together with the paper, of singular beauty. The Hebrew text is printed from the celebrated edition of Vander Hooght (noticed in p. 121); the Samaritan Pentateuch is given from Dr. Kennicott's edition of the Hebrew Bible, and is added by way of Appendix. The Septuagint is printed from Bos's edition of the Vatican text; and at the end of the Old Testament there are given the various readings of the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuchs, together with the Masoretic notes, termed Keri and Ketib, the various lections of the Alexandrian manuscript as edited by Dr. Grabe, and the Apocryphal chapters of the book of Esther. (See a notice of them infra, Vol. IV. Part I. Chap. VIII. § V.) The New Testament is printed from Mill's edition of the Textus Receptus, with the whole of the important readings given by Griesbach in his edition of 1805 (noticed in the following section.) The Peschito or Old Syriac version is printed from Widmanstadt's edition, published at Vienna in 1555, collated with the very accurate edition lately executed under the auspices of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The Apocalypse, and such of the Epistles as are not found in the Peschito, are given from the Philoxenian or new Syriac version. The Apocalypse is printed from Louis De Dieu's edition from the Elzevir press (Lug. Bat. 1627,) and the Epistles from the edition of the celebrated orientalist, Dr. Pocock. (Lug. Bat. 1680.) The text of the Latin Vulgate version is taken from the edition of Pope Clement VIII The authorised English version is accompanied with marginal renderings and a new and very valuable selection of parallel texts. Peculiar attention has been paid to ensure the general accuracy of every branch of this Polyglott edition of the Bible, which is confided to gentlemen of acknowledged learning and industry; and prolegomena are preparing by the Rev. Samuel Lee, M. A. Professor of Arabic in the university of Canbridge.

This work is neatly and correctly printed in the following forms: - FIRST, in one volume quarto, presenting the original with the above-mentioned versions at one view except the Samaritan text of the Pentateuch, which forms an Appendix. SECONDLY, in octavo volumes, each being a complete work, which may be separately purchased in succession, as occasion may require; and which, together. forms a complete Polyglott Bible in four small volumes. THIRDLY, a number of copies is printed, combining the original texts with one or other of the respective versions; and others containing similar combinations of the versions only. This arrangement is adopted for the convenience of biblical students, to whom it thus offers the Holy Scriptures in a portable form, and containing such versions only as the nature of their studies may require. A Scripture Harmony, or concordance of 500,000 parallel passages, is printed in various sizes, agreeing page for page with the Polyglott. We have been thus particular in giving the above description of this publication, on account of its intrinsic value and utility. The Hebrew of the quarto copies is pointed. The octavo copies may be procured, with the Hebrew, pointed or not, at the option of the purchasers.1

1 The publisher of the valuable Polyglott Bible above noticed, in 1819 issued from the press an octoglott edition of the Liturgy of the Anglican church, in one quarto volume, which may justly be pronounced one of the finest specimens of typography that ever issued from the British press. The eight languages, printed in this edition, are the English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Antient Greek, Modern Greek, and Latin. The English text is given from a copy of the Oxford Edition of the Common Prayer Book. The French version is modern, and is well known to most readers of that language, having frequently been printed, and received with general approbation. The Psalins are printed from the Basle Edition

Several editions of the Bible are extant, in two or three languages, called Diglotts and Triglotts, as well as Polyglott editions of particular parts of the Scriptures. For an account of these, we are compelled to refer the reader to the Bibliotheca Sacra of Le Long and Masch, and the Bibliographical Dictionary of Dr. Clarke, already cited. A complete account of all these Polyglott editions is a desideratum in English literature.

Of the Diglotts or editions in two languages, the following are chiefly worthy of notice, viz.

1. Biblia Sacra Hebraica, cum interlineari interpretatione Latina Xantis Pagnini: accessit Bibliorum pars, quæ Hebraicè non reperitur, item Novum Testamentum, Græcè, cum Vulgata Interpretatione Latina Studio Benedicti Ariæ Montani. Antwerpiæ, 1572, 1584. Genevæ, 1609, 1619, (with a new title only.) Lipsiæ, 1657, folio.

The edition of 1572 forms the sixth volume of the Antwerp Polyglott (p. 115. supra,) as it is the first, so it is the best edition. The octavo editions, er officina Plantiniana Raphelengii (Lugduni Batavorum), 1599 or 1610-1613, in nine voJumes, are of very little value. In the folio editions above noticed, the Latin word is placed above the Hebrew and Greek words, to which they belong. The Latin version of Xantes or Santes Pagninus is corrected by Montanus, and his learned coadjutors, Raphelenge, and others.

2. Biblia Hebraica, i. e. Vetus Testamentum, seu Hagiographia Canonici Veteris nempe Testamenti Libri, que originario nobis etiamnum ore leguntur, ex Hebraico in Latinum ad litteram versi, adjectâ editione Vulgatâ Hebraicè et Latinè, cura et studio Ludovici de Biel, e Societate Jesu. Viennæ, 1743. 4 vols. 8vo.

This is an elegant edition, little known in this country, but in many respects highly valuable. It contains the Hebrew, and two Latin versions, that of the Vulgate edition in 1592, and that of Arias Montanus. It is ornamented with vignettes, and the initial letters, which are well engraved on copper, represent some fact of sacred history, to which the immediate subject is applicable.

3. The Old Testament, English and Hebrew, with remarks, critical and grammatical, on the Hebrew, and corrections of the English. By Anselm Bayley, LL. D. London, 1774. 4 vols. 8vo.

The Hebrew text is printed in long lines on the left hand page; and the authorised English version, on the right hand page, divided into two columns. The critical notes, which are very few, are placed under the English text. The Hebrew text is accompanied, throughout, with the Keri and Ketib; but all the accents, &c. are omitted, except the athnach, which answers to our colon, and the soph of Ostervald's Bible. The Italian is taken from the edition of A. Montucci and L. Valletti, published in 1796, but revised throughout, and its orthography corrected. The Psalms are copied from the Bible of Diodati. The German translation, by the Rev. Dr. Küper (Chaplain of his Majesty's German Chapel, St. James's), is entirely new, except the Psalms, which are taken from Luther's German Version of the Scriptures. The Spanish, by the Rev. Blanco White, is for the most part new. The Psalms are printed from Padre Scio's great Spanish Bible, published at Madrid in 1807, in sixteen volumes. The translation into the Antient Greek language is that executed by Dr. Duport (A. D. 1665), who was Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge. The Psalms are from the Septuagint. The Modern Greek is an entirely new translation by Mr. A. Calbo, a learned native Greek, of the island of Zante. And the Latin version is nearly a reprint of the edition which was first printed by W. Bowyer in 1720, with some alterations and additions by the present editor (John Carey, LL. D.), sometimes taken from the translations of Mr. Thomas Parsel, the fourth edition of which was published in 1727. The Psalms are from the Vulgate.

The utility of this work is considerably increased by its being capable of being procured (like the Polyglott Bible above described) either in single or in combined portions, containing any one or more languages, at the option of the purchasers.

pashuk, which is placed at the end of each verse in the Bible. At the end of each book is given an epilogue, containing a summary view of the history, transactions, &c. recorded therein. The work is ornamented with a frontispiece, representing Moses receiving the tables of the law on Mount Sinai, and two useful maps ; — one of the journeying of the Israelites, in which each station is numbered; and another of their settlement in the promised land. The letter press of the Hebrew in very unequally distributed over the pages; some are long and others short; some are wide, and others narrow. On some pages not fewer than thirty-seven lines are crowded together, while others contain only twenty-three. In other respects, Dr. A. Clarke pronounces it to be a pretty correct work; but, besides the errata noticed by the editor, he adds, that the reader will find the sentence-thou shalt visit thy habitation, left out of the English text, in Job v. 24.- Bibliogr. Dic. vol. 1. p. 274.

v. Editions with critical notes and apparatus.

1. The first edition of the Hebrew Bible, printed by Bomberg, and edited by Felix Pratensis (Venice, 1518), contains the various lections of the Eastern and Western recensions; which are also to be found in Buxtorf's Biblia Rabbinica.

2. Biblia Hebraica, cum Latina Versione Sebastiani Munsteri. Basileæ, folio, 1534, 1535.

The Hebrew type of this edition resembles the characters of the German Jews: the Latin version of Munster is placed by the side of the Hebrew text. Though the editor has not indicated what manuscripts he used, he is supposed to have formed his text upon the edition printed at Brescia in 1494, or the still more early one of 1488. His prolegomena contain much useful critical matter; and his notes are subjoined to each chapter.

3. Biblia Sacra Hebræa correcta, et collata cum antiquissimis exemplaribus manuscriptis et hactenus impressis. Amstelodami. Typis et sumptibus Josephi Athiæ. 1661. 8vo.

An extremely rare edition of a most beautifully executed Hebrew Bible. The impression of 1667, edited by Leusden, is said to be the most correct. So highly were the labours of the printer, Athias, appreciated, that the States General of Holland conferred on him a gold chain with a gold medal appendant, as a mark of their approbation.

4. Biblia Hebraica, cum notis Hebraicis et Lemmatibus Latinis, ex recensione Dan. Ern. Jablonski, cum ejus Præfatione Latina. Berolini, 1699, large 8vo, sometimes called 4to.

De Rossi considers this to be one of the most correct and important editions of the Hebrew Bible ever printed. It is extremely scarce. Jablonski published another edition of the Hebrew Bible in 1712 at Berlin, without points, in large 12 mo.; and subjoined to it Leusden's Catalogue of 2294 select verses, containing all the words occurring in the Old Testament. There is also a Berlin edition of the Hebrew Bible without points, in 1711, 24mo. from the press of Jablonski, who has prefixed a short preface. It was begun under the editorial care of S. G. Starcke, and finished, on his death, by Jablonski. Masch pronounces it to be both useless and worthless.

5. Biblia Hebraica, edente Everardo Van der Hooght. Amstel. et Ultraject. 8vo, 2 vols. 1705.

A work of singular beauty and rarity. The Hebrew text is printed, after Athias's second edition, with marginal notes pointing out the contents of each section. The characters, especially the vowel points, are uncommonly clear and distinct. At the end, Van der Hooght has given the various lections between the editions of Bomberg, Plantin, Athias, and others. Van der Hooght's edition was reprinted at London in 2 vols. 8vo, 1811, 1812, under the editorship of Mr. Frey, which has by no means answered the expectations entertained of its correctness; and also at Philadelphia, with a large and clear type, in two octavo volumes, in 1814, but without points. This is the first Hebrew Bible printed in North America.

6. Biblia Hebraica ex aliquot Manuscriptis et compluribus impressis codicibus; item Masora tam edita quam manuscripta, aliisque Hebræorum criticis diligenter recensita. Cura ac studio D. Jo.

VOL. II.

16

Henr. Michaelis. 1720, 2 vols. large Svo. There are also copies in 4to.

This edition has always been held in the highest estimation. The text is printed from Jablonski's Hebrew Bible (Berlin, 1699); and there were collated for this edition five manuscripts in the library of Erfurt, and nineteen of the best printed editions. A selection of various readings, and parallel passages both real and verbal, is subjoined, together with brief notes on the most difficult texts of the Old Testament. Michaelis has prefixed learned prolegomena to this edition.

7. Biblia Hebraica cum notis criticis, et Versione Latina ad notas criticas facta. Accedunt Libri Græci, qui Deutero-canonici vocantur, in tres Classes distributi. Autore Carolo Francisco Houbigant. Lutetiæ Parisiorum, 1753, 4 vols. folio.

The text of this edition is that of Van der Hooght, without points; and in the margin of the Pentateuch Houbigant has added various lections from the Samaritan Pentateuch. He collated twelve manuscripts, of which however he is said not to have made all the use he might have done. Houbigant has also printed a new Latin version of his own, expressive of such a text as his critical emendations appeared to justify and recommend. The book is most beautifully printed, but has not answered the high expectations that were entertained of it. See Bishop Marsh's criticism on it, in his Divinity Lectures, part ii. pp. 101-104. The Prolegomena and critical notes were printed separately, at Frankfort, in 1777, in two volumes, 4to.

8. Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum cum variis Lectionibus. Edidit Benjaminus Kennicott, S. T. P. Oxonii, 1776, 1780. 2 vols. folio.

This splendid work was preceded by two dissertations on the state of the Hebrew text, published in 1753 and 1759; the object of which was to show the necessity of the same extensive collation of Hebrew manuscripts as had already been undertaken for the Greek manuscripts. The utility of the proposed collation being generally admitted, a very liberal subscription was made to defray the expense of the collation, amounting on the whole to nearly ten thousand pounds, and the name of his late majesty headed the list of subscribers. Various persons were employed, both at home and abroad: but of the foreign literati the principal was Professor Bruns of the University of Helmstadt, who not only collated Hebrew manuscripts in Germany, but went for that purpose into Italy and Switzerland. The business of collation continued from 1760 to 1769 inclusive, during which period Dr. Kennicott published annually an account of the progress which was made. More than six hundred Hebrew manuscripts, and sixteen manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch, were discovered in different libraries in England and on the Continent: many of which were wholly collated, and others consulted in important passages. Several years of course elapsed, after the collations were finished, before the materials could be arranged and digested for publication. The variations contained in nearly seven hundred bundles of papers, being at length digested (including the collations made by professor Bruns); and the whole when put together, being corrected by the original collations, and then fairly transcribed into thirty folio volumes, the work was put to press in 1773. In 1776, the first volume of Dr. Kennicott's Hebrew Bible was delivered to the public, and in 1780 the second volume. It was printed at the Clarendon Press: and the University of Oxford has the honour of having produced the first critical edition upon a large scale, both of the Greek Testament and of the Hebrew Bible-an honour which it is still maintaining by a similar edition, hitherto indeed unfinished, of the Greek version, commenced by the late Rev. Dr. Holmes and now continuing under the editorial care of the Rev. Dr. Parsons.

"The text of Kennicott's edition was printed from that of Van der Hooght, with which the Hebrew manuscripts, by Kennicott's direction, were all collated. But, as variations in the points were disregarded in the collation, the points were not added in the text. The various readings, as in the critical editions of the Greek Testament, were printed at the bottom of the page, with references to the correspondent readings of the text. In the Pentateuch the deviations of the Samaritan text were printed in a column parallel to the Hebrew; and the variations observable in the Samaritan manuscripts, which differ from each other as well as the Hebrew, are likewise noted with references to the Samaritan printed text. To this collation of manuscripts was added a collation of the most distinguished editions of the Hebrew Bible, in the same manner as Wetstein has noted the varia

tions observable in the principal editions of the Greek Testament. Nor did Kennicott confine his collation to manuscripts and editions. He further considered, that, as the quotations from the Greek Testament in the works of ecclesiastical writers afford another source of various readings, so the quotations from the He brew Bible in the works of Jewish writers are likewise subjects of critical inquiry. For this purpose he had recourse to the most distinguished among the rabbinical writings, but particularly to the Talmud, the text of which is as antient as the third century. In the quotation of his authorities he designates them by numbers from 1 to 692, including manuscripts, editions, and rabbinical writings, which numbers are explained in the Dissertatio Generalis annexed to the second volume. "This Dissertatio Generalis, which corresponds to what are called Prolegomena in other critical editions, contains, not only an account of the manuscripts and other authorities collated for this edition, but also a review of the Hebrew text divided into periods, and beginning with the formation of the Hebrew canon after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity. Though inquiries of this description unavoidably contain matters of doubtful disputation, though the opinions of Kennicott have been frequently questioned, and sometimes justly questioned, his Dissertatio Generalis is a work of great interest to every biblical scholar. Kennicott was a disciple of Capellus, both in respect to the integrity of the Hebrew text, and in respect to the preference of the Samaritan Pentateuch: but he avoided the extreme, into which Morinus and Houbigant had fallen. And though he possessed not the rabbinical learning of the two Buxtorfs, his merits were greater, than some of his contemporaries, as well in England as on the continent, were willing to allow." Bishop Marsh's Divinity Lectures, part ii. pp. 105-108. For a very copious account of Dr. Kennicott's edition of the Hebrew Bible, see the Monthly Review (O.S.), vol. lv. pp. 92–100. vol. Ixiv. pp. 173–182. 321–328. vol. lxv. pp. 121–131.

To Dr. Kennicott's Hebrew Bible, M. De Rossi published an important supplement at Parma (1784-1787,) in four volumes 4to. entitled Varia Lectiones Veteris Testamenti, ex immensa MSS. editorumque codicum congerie exhausta, et ad Samaritanum Textum, ad vetustissimas Versiones, ad accuratiores Sacræ Critica fontes ac leges examinata. This work and Dr. Kennicott's edition form one complete set of collations. Four hundred and seventy nine manuscripts were collated for M. De Rossi's elaborate work, besides two hundred and eighty-eight printed editions, some of which were totally unknown before, and others very imperfectly known. He also consulted several Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Latin manuscripts, together with a considerable number of rabbinical commentaries. Vol. I. contains the Prolegomena of De Rossi, and the various readings of the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus. Vol. II. contains those of the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Vol. III. comprehends Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the twelve minor Prophets, with the Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther: and in Vol. IV. are the various readings of the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. A supplemental volume was published at Parma, in 1799, entitled Scholia Critica in Vetus Testamentum, seu Supplementum ad Varias Sacri Textus Lectiones, 4to. This volume contains the results of M. De Rossi's further collations. His Prolegomena are a treasure of biblical criticism. The critical labours of this eminent philologer ascertain (as Dr. Kennicott's valuable and judicious labours had before done), instead of invalidating, the integrity of the sacred text, in matters of the greatest importance; as all the manuscripts, notwithstanding the diversity of their dates, and of the places where they were transcribed, agree with respect to that which constitutes the proper essence and substance of divine revelation, viz. its doctrines, moral precepts, and historical relations. M. De Rossi charges the variations not merely on the copyists, but on the ignorance and temerity of the critics, who have in all ages been too ambitious of dictating to their authors: and who, instead of correcting the pretended errors of others, frequently substitute in their place real errors of their own.

Of the immense mass of various readings which the collations of Dr. Kennicott and M. De Rossi exhibit, multitudes are insignificant consisting frequently of the omission or addition of a single letter in a word, as a vau, &c. "But they are not therefore useless. All of this class contribute powerfully to establish the quthenticity of the sacred text in general by their concurrence; while they occasionally afford valuable emendations of the sacred text in several important passages, supporting by their evidence the various readings suggested by the antient versions derived from manuscripts of an earlier date." (Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. book i. p.xiv.) In the first volume of Dr. Masch's edition of Le Long's