Biblia sacra, vulgatae editionis, Sixti V.

Venice: Typographia Herziana, 1740. Double column, title in red and black, full-page etched frontispiece in Vol I, woodcut illustrations throughout. Contemporary stiff vellum, manuscript spine titles. Some minor dampstaining, but otherwise a remarkably good set. Folded in are a manuscript devotional poem, a letter dated 11 Nov. 1856, a printed leaflet oration to St. Felix of Nola, and an etched vignette of St. Pius X. Ownership inscription on the front flyleaf of Vol I dated 1906. Finely illustrated edition of the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate version of the Bible, the translation officially authorized by the Vatican until 1979. Originally published in 1592, it contains rules for understanding Scripture, the preface written by Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, the papal bull by Clement VIII asserting this version’s priority, the Tridentine decree on canonical books, preface by St. Jerome, chapter summaries under each heading, and marginal concordances.
This copy contains a few mementos of a 19th century Italian owner, including a four-page poem of piety and a letter from one Catarina Orato Lami to her uncle, written while visiting the Roman Baths in Bath, England.
Not in Darlow and Moule.