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Canter, an eminent lawyer, was born at Utrecht, in 1542, and educated under the inspection of his parents, till he was 12 years of age. He was then sent to Louvain, where he continued four years, and gave singular proof of his progress in Greek and Latin literature. In 1559, he removed from Louvain to Paris, that he might perfect himself in the knowledge of the Greek, under the learned professors in that city. The civil wars obliging him to leave France, he entered upon a literary tour through Germany and Italy; but the delicacy of his constitution rendered him inadequate to the fatigue of travelling, and he returned to Louvain before he had completed his design. He died in 1575, of a consumption brought on by excessive study. Beside his native tongue he understood six languages, viz: Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Italian, and German. Thuanus says, that he deserved to be reckoned among the most learned men of his age. He published so many philological and critical works, that they have created astonishment, that they could possibly be produced by one of so feeble a constitution and so short a life, and can only be attributed to his constant assiduity, and the regular distribution of his time, since he had not only his particular hours for studying, but divided these by an hour-glass, some of which he set apart for -reading, and others for writing, never varying from his established method on any account whatever."4

CHRISTOPHER PLANTIN, the learned and ingenious printer of the Antwerp Polyglott, was a Frenchman, born at Mont-Louis, near Tours, in 1514. He was taught the typographical art by Robert Macè, of Caen; from whence he went to Antwerp, and by degrees formed one of the most extensive establishments for printing in Europe. When Thuanus paid him a visit in 1576, he still had seventeen presses at work, and the wages of his (31) Chalmers' Gen. Biog. Dict. VIII. pp. 184-186.

Aikin's Gen. Biog. II. p. 459.

workmen amounted to 200 florins per day, though his circumstances were then considerably reduced. The correctors of his press were men of the first talents and learning, whom he rewarded with great liberality. Among these were Victor Giselin; Theodore Pulman; Antony Gesdal; Francis Hardouin; Cornelius Kilien; and Francis Rapheleng, who became his son-in-law. Cornelius Kilien, one of the most learned and accurate of them, spent fifty years in this printing-house. The accuracy of Plantin's editions is well known; and it is said, that he was so fastidiously careful to avoid incorrectness, that he used to hang up the proof sheets, after having been revised, in some conspicuous place, promising rewards for the detection of errors. The king of Spain gave him the title of Archi-typographus, and accompanied the title with a salary, and a kind of patent for the printing of certain works, particularly of the religious kind, with which, we are assured, he almost exclusively served Europe and the Indies. Beside his printing-establishment at Antwerp, he set up another at Leyden, and a third at Paris. He took into partnership at Antwerp, John Moret, who had married his second daughter, and bestowed the printing-offices at Leyden and Paris, upon his other sons-in-law, Francis Rapheleng, and Giles Beys. He died in 1589, aged 75, and was interred in the great church at Antwerp, where a monument was erected to his memory. His device was a pair of compasses, with the motto "Labore et constantia."5

Several other eminent and learned persons, beside those already specified, afforded assistance to the perfection of the Polyglott, printed by Plantin; Cardinal GRANVELL caused the Greek text to be collated with the Vatican copy, at his own expense; Cardinal SIRLET collected various readings; CLEMENT, an English Catholic, and doctor in philosophy and medicine, who had left (35) Chalmers' Gen. Biog. Dict. XXV. pp. 35-37.

England, on account of his attachment to the church of Rome, procured an elegant copy of the Greek Pentateuch, from the library of Sir Thomas More; DANIEL Bomberg, son of the learned printer, furnished an ancient copy of the Syriac New Testament; Arias Montanus acknowledges also his obligations to JoANNES REGLA, a Spanish Hieronymite, confessor to Charles V. and also to AUGUSTIN HUNNEUS, and CORNELIUS GOUDAN, doctors and professors of theology of the university of Louvain, who with JOHN HARLEM, were commissioned by that university, to examine the work, by order of Philip II.36

Soon after the completion of the Polyglott Bible by Arias Montanus, a singular occurrence took place, which sufficiently demonstrated the very limited acquaintance of the Spanish divines, with sacred bibliography. This was the reprinting of the Zurich Latin Bible by Leo Judæ, with Vatablus's notes as published by Robert Stephens, in 1545, by GASPAR de PORTONARIIS, at the joint expense of himself and GULIERMO ROBILIO, and BENITO Boyer, in 1584, at Salamanca. It had the following title:

"Biblia Sacra cum duplici Translatione et Scholiis Francisci Vatabli, nunc denuò à plurimis quibus scatebant, erroribus repurgatis, doctissimorum Theologorum, tam almæ Universitatis Salmanticensis, quam Complutensis iudicio: ac Sanctæ et generalis Inquisitionis iussu. Quid præterea in hac editione præstitum sit, animadversiones indicabunt. Cum priuelėgio Hispaniarum Regis. Salmanticæ, apud Gasparem à Portonariis suis et Gulielmi Rouillii, Benedictq; Boierii expensis. M.D. LXXXIIII.” 2 tom. in fol. Gaspar de Portonariis was occupied 12 years in this impression of the Bible, owing to the difficulty of obtaining permission to publish it. This arose chiefly from the reluctance of the doctors and inquisitors to suffer any thing to be reprinted, which had been published by Robert Stephens, and especially a translation of the (36) Le Long, edit. Masch, pt. i. cap. iii. pp. 345, 346.

Bible accompanied with notes. Of the translation having been originally made by the Helvetic reformers, they were certainly ignorant, or the publication would doubtless have been altogether suppressed. The different documents prefixed to this edition, fully prove the obstacles Gaspar de Portonariis had to surmount in the accomplishment of his design. The first contains the Royal Privilege, dated February 16th, 1586, by which the exclusive right of printing this Bible for 20 years froin the date of this privilege, is granted to Gaspar de Portonariis; the second fixes the tax, or price of the work; the third is a decree of the king, dated Madrid, April 21st, 1573, by which he permits Gaspar de Portonariis, to print the Bible of Vatablus, according to the copy corrected, by order of the inquisition; the fourth contains an act of Pedro de Tapia, secretary of the council of the inquisition, by which we learn that Gaspar de Portonariis prayed the council, on January 26th, 1569, to cause the Bible of Vatablus, which had been inserted in the Index, to be corrected that it might be printed; that the said council ordered Francis Sancho, canon of the church of Salamanca, and commissary of the office of the inquisition, to revise the "Bible of Vatablus," assisted by the doctors and masters of the faculty of theology of the university of Salamanca. The order of the inquisition having been fulfilled, Gaspar de Portonariis, on the 20th of March, 1571, presented another request to the council, to obtain the "approbation" of the censors of the university of Salamanca, and desired to have the "censure," and a decree of the said "approbation," to prefix to the Bible: the "censure" is the fifth document which accompanies the work, and is followed by the "decree." In cousequence of this decree, a "testimonial" is printed at the end of the volume, dated "monastery of St. Bartholomew in Toledo, June 13th, 1586," signed by Roman de Valezillo, monk of the order of St. Benedict, commissary of the

inquisition, under Gaspar de Quiroga, cardinal and archbishop of Toledo, primate of Spain, and apostolic general of the inquisition.

This Bible is printed in two columns, the first of which contains the Vulgate version in Roman characters; and the second the Zurich version in Italic characters. The verses are marked between the columns. The various readings and parallel passages are placed in the margin ; and the scholiæ, at the end of each chapter. At the end of the New Testament, a table is subjoined, of the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek names," and an "Index of the Epistles, and Gospels," as read in the churches on Sundays and other holidays, taken from Robert Stephens's edition. To these is added an "Index Biblicus," by John Harlem,with an "advertisement" to the reader by the author; and the king's "privilege," dated Madrid, Dec. 20th. 1574: followed by a "Catalogue of the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament," taken from ch. 47. of the 3rd council of Carthage, celebrated about A. D. 417. The last page contains an "approbation" for the printing of the Index Biblicus, signed by Augustin Hunnæus, regius professor of divinity in the university of Louvain, January 1st, 1571, the whole being terminated by the following subscription, "Salmanticæ, ex Officina Ildefonsi à Terranuoua et Neyla, M.D.LXXXV." The Corrections of Stephens's edition of this Bible, made by the censors of the university of Salamanca, were very numerous, as may be seen by reference to the Indices Expurgatorii published about that period, or during the succeeding century: but all their precautions did not prevent its being subsequently placed in the Expurgatory Index, for in the Index librorum prohibitorum, published in 1612, by order of Bernard de Sandoval, archbishop of Toledo, and inquisitor general, it is placed in the 2nd class of prohibited books, in these terms, "Biblia Sacra cum duplici translatione, et scholiis

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