Collection

First edition of the translation of the New Testament from the Hellenistic original in the Koine dialect. The plan for this translation dates to 1620, when Patriarch Cyril Loukaris had charged a certain Gabriel with the translation of the New Testament for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The delicate and laborious work of translation was eventually undertaken by the monk Maximos Rodios from Kallipoli, with other collaborators. His early death (1633) left the comparison of the texts unfinished. From then on publication was deferred from year to year until the Dutch ambassador to Basel Bredorode and the Genevan printer Pierre Aubert signed a contract in 1636 foreseeing the issue of 1,500 copies. The book was printed with the original and the modern Greek translation, using Robert Stefanos’s characters with equivalent initial letters and headings. After many adventures during the shipment of the copies to Constantinople, a great number of them ended in the fire for the Patriarchate circle considered that the translation contravened the Orthodox dogma.

Format: 25 cm

Page description: Part One lv. [12]+452, Part Two lv. 314

References: ΒΗ ΙΙ/1 (267) • PAP Ι, 1091

Entity: Theology

Item Type: Book