First edition of the Opolyglot prayer in 150 different languages and characters
offered to Pope Pius VII by the imperial printing press in 1805
et preserved in its binding of the time.
Paris, 1805.
Marcel, Jean-Joseph. Oratio Dominica CL linguis versa, et propriis cujusque linguae characteribus plerumque expressa; Edente J. J. Marcel, typography of imperial manager general.
Paris, by Imperial printing, 1805.
Large in-4 of (8) ff., 150 ff. numbered, 1 f. Several ff. bis. Pink binding, smooth spine, untrimmed. Binding of the time.
314 x 233 mm.
First edition of the polyglot Lord’s Prayer printed in 150 languages for Pope Pius VII during his visit to the imperial printing house in 1805.
Graesse, Treasure of rare books, 381.
French Orientalist, Jean-Joseph Marcel was appointed as director of the printing press that was to accompany Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt.
He collected a considerable number of Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Coptic, Armenian, and Ethiopian manuscripts, took impressions of numerous inscriptions including the famous ‘Rosetta Stone’.
He also printed an Arabic, Turkish, and Persian alphabet upon his arrival in the year VI (1798).
Upon his return to France, he was designated as one of the editors of the “Description of Egypt” and as director of the imperial printing press from 1804 to 1815.
The Lord’s Prayer translated into one hundred and fifty languages was offered by Marcel to Pope Pius VII in 1805 during his visit to the imperial printing house.
This curious polyglot Prayer was printed almost in one day. Each of the imperial printing presses successively pulled a separate sheet composed with the specific characters for each language in front of the Pope. As Pius VII passed by each printer, he received from his hands ‘the good sheet’. When the Pope reached the last press, the printing of the book was finished, and as he entered the bookbinding workshop, the volume was bound almost instantly by a special process that allowed the sovereign pontiff to take this typographical marvel executed before his eyes.
“By far the most splendid edition of the Lord’s Prayer in different languages, and forms a most elegant volume, as well as an unrivaled specimen of typography”. (Sabin 57436).
This edition is precious as it displays on each page within red printed frames one hundred and fifty languages in different characters alongside most of the foreign characters available to the imperial printing house at that time.
Superb example with all edges untrimmed, of the head printing on vellum paper, preserved in its pink binding of the period.
