Underlining and Annotation

Biblia sacra, quæ præter antiquæ Latinæ versionis emendationem & explicationem … continent.
Tübingen: Georg Gruppenbach, 1600. (BRB0472)

This is one of the most densely hand-annotated books in Bridwell Library Special Collections. It is the first edition of the Latin Bible prepared by the German Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander II (1562–1617), presenting the revised Latin scriptures in the two inner columns, with the compiler’s paraphrases, explanations, and annotations from various other commentators printed in the outer two columns. Although most of the volume has no handwritten notes, a later owner has written unusually intensive, minute, and crowded annotations on the pages of Genesis, Joshua, Judges, and the Gospels. The annotations correspond to the keywords in the printed text that have been underlined.

The signatures of two owners appear on the Bible’s title page. The later inscription, “J. Ph. Lipps, Pf[arre]r. in Rechtenbach & Schweigen,” appears to match the penmanship of the Bible’s annotations. Johann Philipp Lipps (1791–1858) was the Lutheran pastor in Rechtenbach-Schweigen, near Karlsruhe, on the modern French-German border.

View a video of the book.