Bible, Greek.- New Testament, 'Mazarin edition', collation: ?-?⁴, ?? ??⁴, ??? ???^4, [4], 453, [1] pp., Greek text, engraved title by Claude Mellan (1598-1688) depicting an angel writing on an obelisk, the title itself inscribed on a scroll carried by three cherubs, imprint in Greek at foot, engraved decorated initials and head-piece, large engraved cul-de-lampe on verso of final leaf with the arms of the King Louis XIII, minor browning in places, blank margins of a few leaves slightly soiled, handsome contemporary red morocco by Robert Steel (d. 1710), covers framed by a narrow frieze and finely gilt tooled to a panel design, spine with seven raised bands and richly gilt tooled, edges of covers and turn-ins tooled in gilt, gilt edges, corners of upper cover slightly rubbed, upper joint slightly cracked, folio, 433 x 290mm., Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1642.

⁂ A superb, wide-margined copy of the magnificent edition "known as the 'Mazarin edition', since it appeared under the auspices of the great Cardinal" (Darlow & Moule); the first edition of the Greek New Testament from the Imprimerie Royale, founded by Louis XIII in 1640. It is a substantial reprint, with a few alterations, of the New Testament printed by the Elzevirs in 1624, adding a 30-page appendix of Variae Lectiones. The text was set in Garamond's Greek types from the mid-sixteenth century, used by the Estienne dynasty of printers, which subsequently became part of the equipment of the Imprimerie Royale. The publication is enriched by a fine engraved title-page by the renowned French artist Claude Mellan, and numerous initials and large head-and tailpieces.

This copy is in a wonderful gilt-tooled morocco binding executed in the golden age of English binding by the outstanding craftsman, Robert Steel. Steel was apprenticed to the royal binder Samuel Mearne from 1668 to 1675. He seems to have taken over the tools of the Mearne bindery soon after the death of Charles Mearne in 1686 and may have operated from the same address in Little Britain. He was regarded as one of the best binders of his time. After his death in 1710 the business was run until 1718 by his widow Jane; then Steel's tools passed to one of his former apprentices (he is recorded as having eight apprentices) Thomas Elliott, who later became one of the principal binders for the Harleian Library.

Literature: Darlow & Moule 4687.