Loeven (Louvain), Ghedruct in die vermazwerde Universiteyt ende stadt van Loeven by my Bartholomeus van Grave, 1548, in-folio (30.5 x 19.5 cm - 12.0 x 7.7 inches), [466], sign.: +6 A6 B6 C4 A-Z6 AA - ZZ6 AA - NN6 OO4 A N6 08, contemporary full brown calf on wooden boards (lack of leather on spine-ends, joints and boards), spine raised on 6 bands, around sides framing of blind stamped fillets, brass catches (leather claps are missing), pink velour bookmarkers.
Extremely rare bible of Louvain containing the Old and New Testament. This bible was printed in September 1548 by the Louvain printer Bartholomeus de Grave, which had received the protection of the University. This translation of the Bible was decided in reaction to the translations of the Protestant bibles which took as reference text the German Bible Luther. For much of Catholics, Latin must remain the official language for the liturgy and the official documents, and much of Catholics found undesirable to translate the Bible in a vernacular language because that could undermine the authority of Rome. Nevertheless after much of tergiversations, one undertook the translation of the Bible in Dutch based on the Vulgate text recognized by the council of Trent between 1545 and 1563. The translation was entrusted to Nicolaas de Winghe, canon and librarian of the convent of the Augustin in Louvain. De Winghe completed the translation at only one year of work. Today is not known more than 30 copies of this edition of 1548. This Louvain Bible will remained the reference text for the catholics until the end of the 19th century. This bible is a thick book of 927 not numbered pages and which contains 976.000 words. It is enriched by a title page with a framing of woodengraving figures sometimes attributed to Durer or Holbein. In the bibel, there are numerous woodengravings figures. Our copy is full complete in its contemporary binding. A few leaves at the beginning of the bible have some margins frayed or ruffled with some lack of paper in the margins wich reach the border of the engravings of the title page. See Cockx-Instege, Belgica Typographia 1541-1600, t. 1, n° 465.