Holy BIBLE Beza 1651 LATIN Biblia SACRA Genealogy c1500s BELFIELD Antique RARE

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Presenting, a First Edition Biblia Sacra from 1651, with Traced Genealogy from the mid 1500s! Biblia Sacra sive Testamentum Vetus Ab. Im. Termellio et Fr. Ivnioex Hebraeo Latine redditum et Testamentum Novum a. Theod. Beza e Graeco in Latinum versum. Indefessvs gendo ('Tireless Agenda, which is the printer J. Bleau's motto). Amstelaedami: typis Ioannis Bleav, Sumptibus Societaris, 1651. FIRST edition Printed by Joan Blaeu. Rebound in later hardboards with gilt spine, some loss to crown of spine by gilt titling. Measures 6.25 x 3.75 inches; 895 pages including engraved title page, half-titles. Set in tiny type, with introductions in Latin, double columns and red outlines to each page. Lovely half titles at front and back. Joan Blaeu (1596-1673) was an Dutch cartographer, best known for his 12-volume world atlas, known as the Atlas Maior . Blaeu, his father, and brother were cartographers to the East India Company and authors of numerous books on geography. His marvelous maps are internationally acclaimed for their beauty and detail. We have the exquisite title page in our Bible to indicate the quality of the engravers in his employ. Pages all edges gilt. You may wish to rebind this in a setting befitting its station. Endpapers roughly bound in, with copious notes in Latin and multiple instances of owner's inscription, most by Henry Belfield, 1655-1667. He also included much poetry, classical refernces, and various verses and aphorisms in English and Latin. VERY GOOD internally; all pages lightly tanned, very light bible paper, flexible, some wear to edges of early pages. Binding opens to threads but holding well. This very early Bible was handed down through the Belfield family, documented in a typed sheet which accompanies this book. Henry Belfield (baptized at Studham in 1647, died c. 1722). the illustrious line of the Belfields of Hartfordshire "a junior scion of Cleggge-in-Rochdale, county Lancaster" was "one of much consideration in Hertfordshire, where it possessed the manors of Studham and Barworth. Its pedigree exists at the College of Arms." The manor of Studham (in Bedfordshire, Hertford) was held by Dunstable Priory, probably as early as the 12th century. In 1554, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII granted the manor of Stodham to William Belfield "formerly the lessee of the manor and the rectory under of the Priory"; his father William had been "of London". William of London appears to have been one of three sons of Christopher Belfeld of Clegg in the county of Lancashire. The Belfields originated at Belfield Hall in the historic Parish of Rochdale. [You can read more online in 'Parishes: Studham', A History of the County of Hertford: volume 2 (1908), pp. 274-280] Our Henry Belfield was number 7 in line after that first William (the typed paper found in our bible gives you the lineage). The manor [today part of Studham cum Barworth Manor] r emained in the family until 1815, when it was sold by a later Henry Belfield's sister Ellen (sometimes Eleanor) Bayley to John William, Earl of Bridgewater. Our Bible descended from Ellen's family to the Coleman family in Milwaukee by 1931, and thence to an Episcopal Seminary in Milwaukee, Nashotah House. The young Henry (about 18 at the time he owned this book) covered the free endpapers with verses, aphorisms, and comments, mostly in Latin, some translated on those pages. Beautifully written in a careful, flowing hand, he favored comments about virtue. We have discovered the sources for a few of them: Virtue is the only nobility -[Seneca] Non vox, sed votum; non miisica chordula, sed cor: Non clamans, sed amana, psallit in aure Dei. 'Tis not the voice, but vow; Sound heart, not sounding string; True Zeal, not outward show, That in God's ear doth ring. - Francis Roberts, Clavis Bibliorum: The Key of the Bible (1665) A tantalizing entry in Latin (sorry, ours is rusty) seems to mention ownership by a Laurentius Baskerville of So. W... read more

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