Lessico
Bibbia Poliglotta Complutense
La
prima pagina originale della Bibbia Poliglotta Complutense
con lo stemma cardinalizio di
Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros
finanziatore dell'opera
La
Bibbia Poliglotta Complutense è la prima edizione stampata multilingue
dell'intera Bibbia, iniziata e finanziata dal cardinale castigliano Francisco
Jiménez de Cisneros, arcivescovo di Toledo e primate di Spagna. L'opera,
interamente dedicata a papa Leone X, contiene la prima edizione del Nuovo
Testamento in greco, la Septuaginta e il
Targum
Onkelos. Delle 600 copie totali pubblicate, ce ne sono pervenute soltanto 123.
Con la
nascita della stampa a caratteri mobili del tedesco Johann Gutenberg negli
anni Cinquanta del XV secolo, subito si approfittò per incrementare la
pubblicazione delle Sacre Scritture. Con grandi spese personali il cardinal
Cisneros comprò molti manoscritti e invitò i maggiori teologi dell'epoca a
lavorare sull'ambizioso progetto di compilare un'enorme e completa Bibbia
multilingue per «far rinascere lo studio decaduto delle Sacre Scritture».
Gli studiosi si incontrarono ad Alcalá de Henares
(in
latino Complutum, da cui l'aggettivo Complutense) nell'università
fondata da Cisneros stesso. I lavori ebbero inizio nell'anno 1502 sotto la
direzione di Diego Lopez de Zúñiga, e si sarebbero protratti per oltre 15
anni.
Il
Nuovo Testamento fu terminato e stampato nel 1514, tuttavia la sua
pubblicazione fu posticipata mentre ancora si lavorava all'edizione
dell'Antico Testamento, poiché era intenzione del gruppo di studiosi
pubblicare entrambe le parti insieme come un'unica opera. Nel frattempo le
dicerie riguardo il lavoro sulla Bibbia Complutense giunsero alle orecchie di
Erasmo da Rotterdam, che
pubblicò la sua personale edizione stampata del Nuovo Testamento in greco.
Erasmo ottenne un privilegio di pubblicazione esclusiva di quattro anni
dall'Imperatore Massimiliano I d'Asburgo e da Papa Leone X nel 1516. Il testo
di Erasmo venne conosciuto col nome di Textus receptus e le edizioni
successive posero le basi per la stesura seicentesca della Bibbia di Re
Giacomo.
L'Antico Testamento Complutense fu terminato nel 1517. A causa del privilegio concesso a Erasmo, la pubblicazione della Complutense fu ritardata fino a quando papa Leone X la sanzionò nel 1520. Si crede tuttavia che non sia stata ampiamente diffusa fino al 1522. Il cardinal Cisneros morì nel novembre del 1517, soltanto cinque mesi prima della fine del lavoro sulla Bibbia, che non vide mai definitivamente pubblicata.
La Bibbia Poliglotta Complutense fu edita in sei volumi. I primi quattro contengono l'Antico Testamento; ogni pagina è divisa in tre colonne di testo: l'esterna in ebraico, la Vulgata latina nel mezzo e la Septuaginta greca in quella più interna. In ciascuna pagina del Pentateuco è stato aggiunto il testo in aramaico (il Targum Onkelos) e la sua traduzione in latino nella parte inferiore della pagina. Il quinto volume, contenente il Nuovo Testamento, consiste in colonne parallele in greco e la Vulgata in latino. Il sesto volume contiene diversi dizionari in ebraico, aramaico e greco, oltre ad appendici e ad aiuti allo studio.
La
versione di san Girolamo
dell'Antico Testamento è stata posta tra le versioni greca ed ebraica,
cosicché la sinagoga e la Chiesa d'Oriente - come è spiegato nella
prefazione - siano come i due ladroni crocifissi alla sinistra e alla destra
di Cristo (rappresentato appunto dalla Vulgata latina, simbolo della Chiesa
cattolica). Un magnifico facsimile a grandezza naturale fu stampato a Valencia
tra il 1984 e il 1987. È stato riprodotto prendendo come base per i testi
della Bibbia (volumi 1-5) la copia conservata dalla Compagnia di Gesù a Roma;
per la preparazione del raro volume sesto è stata invece utilizzata la copia
conservata presso la biblioteca dell'Università di Madrid.
Lo
stile di carattere dell'alfabeto greco creato per la Complutense a opera di
Arnaldo Gullen de Brocar è stato sempre considerato da tipografi quale Robert
Proctor come l'apice dello sviluppo tipografico della prima edizione, dopo la
quale i manoscritti di Aldo Manuzio su
questa basati avranno il monopolio del mercato per i successivi due secoli.
The
Complutensian Polyglot Bible is the name given to the first printed polyglot
of the entire Bible, planned and financed by Cardinal Cisneros
(1436-1517). It includes the first printed editions of the Greek New Testament,
the complete Septuagint,
and the Targum
Onkelos. Of the 600 printed, only 123 are known to have survived to date.
With the
rise of the printing press in the 1450s, the potentials for more efficient
production of the Bible were quickly realized. At great personal expense,
Cardinal Cisneros acquired many manuscripts and invited the top religious
scholars of the day to work on the ambitious task of compiling a massive and
complete polyglot "to revive the languishing study of the Sacred
Scriptures." The scholars met in the city of Alcalá de Henares
(in Latin, Complutum), at the Cardinal's own University of Alcalá.
Work on the project began in 1502 under the direction of Diego Lopez de Zuñiga,
and continued there for fifteen years.
The New
Testament was completed and printed in 1514, but its publication was delayed
while work on the Old Testament continued, so they could be published together
as a complete work. In the meantime, word of the Complutensian project reached
Desiderius Erasmus
in Rotterdam, who produced his own printed edition of the Greek New Testament.
Erasmus obtained an exclusive four-year publishing privilege from Emperor
Maximilian and Pope Leo X in 1516. Erasmus' text became known as the Textus
Receptus, and later editions were the basis for the King James Version of the
New Testament.
The Complutensian Old Testament was completed in 1517. Because of Erasmus' exclusive privilege, publication of the Polyglot was delayed until Pope Leo X could sanction it in 1520. It is believed to have not been distributed widely before 1522. Cardinal Jiménez died in July of 1517, five months after the Polyglot's completion, and never saw its publication.
The Complutensian Polyglot Bible was published as a six-volume set. The first four volumes contain the Old Testament. Each page consists of three parallel columns of text: Hebrew on the outside, the Latin Vulgate in the middle, and the Greek Septuagint on the inside. On each page of the Pentateuch, the Aramaic text (the Targum Onkelos) and its own Latin translation are added at the bottom. The fifth volume, the New Testament, consists of parallel columns of Greek and the Latin Vulgate. The sixth volume contains various Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek dictionaries and study aids.
Jerome's
version of the Old Testament was placed between the Greek and Hebrew versions,
thus the synagogue and the Eastern church, as the preface explains it, are set
like the thieves on this side and on that, with Jesus (that is, the Roman
Church) in the midst.
Complutensian Bible
The first Bible which may be considered a Polyglot is that edited at Alcalá (in Latin Complutum, hence the name Complutensian Bible), Spain, in 1502-17, under the supervision and at the expense of Cardinal Ximenes, by scholars of the university founded in that city by the same great Cardinal. It was published in 1520, with the sanction of Leo X. Ximenes wished, he writes, "to revive the languishing study of the Sacred Scriptures"; and to achieve this object he undertook to furnish students with accurate printed texts of the Old Testament in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, and of the New Testament in the Greek and Latin. His Bible contains also the Chaldaic Targum of the Pentateuch and an interlinear Latin translation of the Greek Old Testament. The work is in six large volumes, the last of which is made up of a Hebrew and Chaldaic dictionary, a Hebrew grammar, and Greek dictionary. It is said that only six hundred copies were issued; but they found their way into the principal libraries of Europe and had considerable influence on subsequent editions of the Bible. Vigouroux made use of it in the very latest of the Polyglots. Cardinal Ximenes was, he asures us, eager to secure the best manuscripts accessible to serve as a basis of his texts; he thanks Leo X for lending him Vatican MSS. Traces of such MSS. are, indeed, discernible, particularly in the Greek text; and there is still a copy at Madrid of a Venetian MS. which he is thought to have used. He did not, however, use any of what are now considered the best; appreciation of the worth of the MSS., and of their variant readings, had still much progress to make; but the active work of many years produced texts sufficiently pure for most purposes. The "Complutensian Bible" published the first printed edition of the Greek Old Testament, the one which was commonly used and reproduced, before the appearance of the edition of Sixtus V, in 1587. It is followed, on the whole, in the Septuagint columns of the four great Polyglots edited by Montanus (Antwerp, 1569-72); Bertram (Heidelberg, 1586-1616); Wolder (Hamburg, 1596); and Le Jay (Paris, 1645). Ximenes' Greek New Testament, printed in 1614, was not published until six years after the hastily edited Greek New Testament of Erasmus, which was published before it in 1516; but in the fourth edition of Erasmus' work (1527), which forms the basis of the "Textus Receptus", a strong influence of Ximenes' text is generally recognized.
Antwerp Bible
The "Antwerp Bible", just mentioned, sometimes called the "Biblia Regia", because it was issued under the auspices of Philip II, depends largely on the "Complutensian" for the texts which the latter had published. It adds to them an interlinear translation of the Hebrew, the Chaldaic Targums (with Latin translation) of the books of the Hebrew Bible which follow the Pentateuch, excepting Daniel, Esdras, Nehemias, and Paralipomenon, and the Peshito text of the Syriac New Testament with its Latin translation. This work was not based on MSS. of very great value; but it was carefully printed by Christophe Plantin, in eight magnificent volumes. The last two contain an apparatus criticus, lexicons and grammatical notes.
Paris Polyglot
The "Paris Polyglot" in ten volumes, more magnificent than its Antwerp predecessor, was edited with less accuracy, and it lacks a critical apparatus. Its notable additions to the texts of the "Antwerp Bible", which it reproduces without much change, are the Samaritan Pentateuch and its Samaritan version edited with Latin translation by the Oratorian, Jean Morin, the Syriac Old Testament and New Testament Antilegomena, and the Arabic version of the Old Testament.
London Polyglot
The "London Polyglot" in six volumes, edited by Brian Walton (1654-7), improved considerably on the texts of its predecessors. Besides them, it has the Ethiopic Psalter, Canticle of Canticles, and New Testament, the Arabic New Testament, and the Gospels in Persian. All the texts not Latin are accompanied by Latin translations, and all, sometimes nine in number, are arranged side by side or one over another on the two pages open before the reader. Two companion volumes, the "Lexicon Heptaglotton" of Edmund Cassel, appeared in 1669. The Bible was also published in several languages by Elias Hutter (Nuremberg, 1599-1602), and by Christianus Reineccius (Leipsic, 1713-51).
Modern Polyglots
Modern Polyglots are much less imposing in appearance than those of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and there is none which gives the latest results of scientific textual criticism as fully as did Brian Walton's in its day. We may cite, however, as good and quite accessible:– Bagster, "Polyglot Bible in eight languages" (2 vols., London, 2nd ed. 1874). The languages are Hebrew, Greek, English, Latin, German, Italian, French, and Spanish. It gives in appendix the Syriac New Testament, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and many variants of the Greek text. This Bible is printed in very small type. It is a new edition, on a reduced scale, of Bagster's "Biblia Sacra Polyglotta" (6 vols., London, 1831). "Polyglotten-Bibel zum praktischen Handgebrauch", by Stier and Theile, in four quarto volumes (5th ed., Bielefeld, 1890). This Polyglot contains the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German texts. "Biblia Triglotta", 2 vols., being, with the omission of modern languages, a reissue of the "Biblia Hexaglotta", edited by de Levante (London, 1874-6). It contains the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts of the Old Testament, and the Greek, Latin, and Syriac texts of the New Testament. Published by Dickenson, London, 1890. "La Sainte Bible Polyglotte" (Paris, 1890-98), by F. Vigouroux, S.S., first secretary of the Biblical Commission, is the only modern Polyglot which contains the deuterocanonical books, and the only one issued under Catholic auspices. Vigouroux has secured the correct printing, in convenient quarto volumes, of the ordinary Massoretic text, the Sixtine Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, and a French translation of the Vulgate by Glaire. Each book of the Bible is preceded by a brief introduction; important variant readings, textual and exegetical notes, and illustrations are given at the foot of the pages.
The Catholic
Encyclopedia, Volume XII 1911 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition 2003
