Early Polyglot Psalter

Psalterium, Hebreum, Grecum, Arabicum, & Chaldeum.
Edited by Augustino Giustiniani.
Genoa: Pietro Paolo Porro, 1516. (Prothro B-48)

A book of Psalms rather than a Bible, this multilingual Psalter of 1516 is one of the earliest polyglot editions of a major biblical text. The individual texts are arranged in eight columns consisting of the Latin Vulgate, Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, and Aramaic texts, with Latin translations of the Hebrew and Aramaic. The eighth column is dedicated to notes. Note D in the far right column at Psalm 19, a commentary on verse 4 (“Their voice goes forth through all the earth and their words to the end of the world”) provides a brief biography of Christopher Columbus, the Genoese navigator whose voyages offered an opportunity to bring the scriptures to the far reaches of the world.