VirginiaHuguenot
Puritanboard Librarian
The Critici Sacri: sive doctissimorum virorum in SS. Biblia Annotationes et Tractatus was a 9 volume anthology published in Latin in 1660 by John Pearson and others which attempted to reference every important work on every part of the Bible. A later edition, published in Amsterdam, 1698"“1732, was expanded to 13 volumes. I have seen it for sale at 15,000 pounds.
It served as the inspiration for Matthew Poole's 5 volume Synopsis Criticorum Aliorumque de Scripturae Interpretum Opera Matthaei Poli which was more than an anthology, it was a true Biblical commentary referencing the comments of all the most important writers on every passage of Scripture. My pastor is currently involved in translating the Synopsis from Latin to English.
[Edited on 10-24-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]
It served as the inspiration for Matthew Poole's 5 volume Synopsis Criticorum Aliorumque de Scripturae Interpretum Opera Matthaei Poli which was more than an anthology, it was a true Biblical commentary referencing the comments of all the most important writers on every passage of Scripture. My pastor is currently involved in translating the Synopsis from Latin to English.
[Critici Sacri] -- A great monument to biblical scholarship, comprising nearly 10,000 pages of commentaries by well over fifty sixteenth- and seventeenth-century scholars, perhaps the most ambitious universal Bible commentary ever compiled. The present second (first Netherlands) edition includes 13 stunning large engraved plates and is also a typographic monument of the greatest importance. The commentaries and criticism are arranged not by author, but by the Bible passages they discuss, so that one can readily read and compare the views of all the leading scholars concerning any passage. The present edition mentions the compilers only at the end of the preface taken over from the first edition (London 1660), principally John Pearson (1613-1686), Bishop of Chester and later Professor of Theology at Cambridge, with his colleagues Anthony Scattergood, Francis Gouldman and Richard Pearson. They brought together texts by Erasmus, Sebastian Münster, Joannes Drusius, Benedictus Arias Montanus, Isaac Casaubon, Edward Brerewood, Kaspar Waser, Hugo Grotius, Petrus Cunaeus, Joseph Scaliger, Johannes Cloppenburg, James Ussher and many more. Volumes 1-4 cover the Old Testament, volume 5 the Apocrypha and Jewish antiquities, and volumes 6-8 the New Testament. The dedication to Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg, and the five-page note to the reader are new to this edition.
The main (Latin) text is set in roman types supplemented by italic, with numerous extensive passages in Greek and Hebrew (some running over several pages and some with a parallel Latin translation), one extensive passage in Syriac and shorter passages in Arabic, textura (used for Dutch and English) and fraktur (used for German). Neither the plates nor the engravings in the text or on the title-pages are signed, but they are fine pieces of work. The world map, ten other plates and one engraving in the text are based on those first published in Plantin´s Polyglot Bible (1568-1573) where most were prepared by Arias Montanus. The world map shows how the world was repopulated by Noah´s three sons after the flood, and the origin of the present version (and that with "œTom. VI. pag. 553, probably from the 1660 Critici Sacri) has long puzzled cartographers (see Shirley 125 and his corrigenda). Its inclusion of the northern part of a large land mass south of the East Indies has encouraged speculations about an early sighting of Australia. The lovely scenes of the Garden of Eden and the Flood in the margins of the present version do not appear on any of the earlier ones. The present versions of Arias Montanus´s maps are not in Laor (cf. 45, 46 & 945) or Poortman & Augusteijn (cf. chapter 14, items 1-4).
Isaac Walton´s London Polyglot Bible (1655-1657) secured England´s place in the world of biblical scholarship. While both its preparation and its publication stimulated a great deal of new scholarship, its parallel presentation of eighteen Bible texts in nine languages left limited room for commentary. The 1660 Critici Sacri in nine volumes was the first and most extensive attempt to fill this gap, the only comparable work being Matthew Poole´s five-volume Synopsis Criticorum (1669-1676). Both were printed by James Flesher in London. English book production still lagged behind Dutch at this date, however, so the present second edition reaps the typographic benefits of the Dutch Golden Age. It was published by a syndicate of six bookseller/publishers in Amsterdam and Utrecht, but the typographic materials and their distribution in the book suggest that the printing may have been shared by two offices, one of them probably Hendrik Wetstein´s.
On the suggestion of William Lloyd (1627-1717), ultimately bishop of Worcester, Poole (1624-1679) undertook the great work of his life, the 'Synopsis' of the critical labours of biblical commentators. He began the compilation in 1666, and laboured at it for ten years. His plan was to rise at three or four in the morning, take a raw egg at eight or nine, and another at twelve, and continue at his studies till late in the afternoon. The evening he spent at some friend's house, very frequently that of Henry Ashurst, where 'he would be exceedingly but innocently merry,' although he always ended the day in 'grave and serious discourse." The prospectus of Poole's work bore the names of eight bishops (headed by Morley and Hacket) and five continental scholars, besides other divines. Simon Patrick (1626-1707), Tillotson, and Stillingfleet, with four laymen, acted as trustees of the subscription money. A patent for the work was obtained on 14 Oct. 1667. The first volume was ready for the press, when difficulties were raised by Cornelius Bee, publisher of the 'Critici Sacri' (1660, fol., nine vols.), who accused Poole of invading his patent, both by citing authors reprinted in his collection, and by injuring his prospective sales. Poole had offered Bee a fourth share in the property of the 'Synopsis,' but this was declined. After pamphlets had been written and legal opinions taken, the matter was referred to Henry Pierrepont, marquis of Dorchester, and Arthur Annesley, first earl of Anglesey, who decided in Poole's favour. Bee's name appears (1669) among the publishers of the 'Synopsis,' which was to have been completed in three folio volumes, but ran to five. Four thousand copies were printed, and quickly disposed of. The merit of Poole's work depends partly on its wide range, as a compendium of contributions to textual interpretation, partly on the rare skill which condenses into brief, crisp notes the substance of much laboured comment. Rabbinical sources and Roman catholic commentators are not neglected; little is taken from Calvin, nothing from Luther.
[Edited on 10-24-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]