Complutensian Polyglot Bible
Biblia Políglota Complutense
- Date
- 1514-1517 (impresión) · confidence high
- Place
- Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
- Credited to
- Cardinal Cisneros and philologists of the University of Alcalá (Nebrija, Zamora, Coronel, Ducas); printer Arnao Guillén de Brocar
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
The first printed polyglot Bible, in six volumes, with the Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Aramaic texts set out in parallel columns. It includes the first printed edition of the Greek New Testament, although it was not distributed until 1520-1522.
The Complutensian Greek New Testament was printed in 1514 but published after Erasmus's Novum Instrumentum (1516), which was the first Greek New Testament edition to go on sale.
What it led to
- later polyglot Bibles (Antwerp, Paris, London)
- Renaissance biblical textual criticism
- high-quality Greek and Hebrew typefaces in Iberian printing