[Unknown Amsterdam edition] Historie der Heilige Schriftuure,

op de wyze van een catechismus. Vercierd met kopere Plaaten. L'Histoire de la Sainte Ecriture, en forme de catechisme. Avec les figures. Amsterdam, Pieter Mortier. 1705, 511,(1 blank),(16),(16) p., with 22 engraved illustrations, contemporary calf with ribbed, gilt back with morocco title shield.

Marginally tanned at the beginning and end by the leather on the inside boards; spine ends and outer corners of board slightly worn. Good copy. Intriguing publication, of which we could trace NO OTHER COPY in this ingeniously constructed bilingual form. There was no space here for a title illustration, but the illustration is simply printed on the reverse of the title. In our edition, the prefaces are printed in two columns (a Dutch and a French column with various types), the rest of the work has the Dutch text on the even-numbered pages and the French text on the facing odd-numbered pages, also using various types. The illustrations are included in the French text, the facing Dutch pages with enlarged chapter titles, to even out the space. The unpaginated final two times 8 leaves contain the Abrege de la Chronologie de l'Ecriture Sainte (16 p.) and its Dutch translation Tydrekening der Heylige Schrift (also 16 p.). Our edition does not appear in PiCarta. The latter does list a Mortier edition of only the Dutch text published in 1705, and Mortier editions of only the French text, published in 1698 and 1706. These editions contain roughly half the number of pages and the same illustrations as our edition. Remarkable is that the type of those editions is nearly identical to that of ours; the publisher has therefore been exceptionally practical in printing his various editions. In 1742 a bilingual edition like ours and a separate Dutch edition appeared at Pieter Mortier. The unnamed author is Eusebius Pagit (ca. 1547-1617), the work appeared for the first time in London, 1613.