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The printing of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible

Alcalá de Henares, Cuenca del Henares, Madrid

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The printing of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible

Historical milestone · Alcalá de Henares, Cuenca del Henares, Madrid

Image of Alcalá de Henares, not of the place itself.

The first polyglot edition of a complete Bible, funded and promoted by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, who gathered the finest theologians of the age at the university he founded in Alcalá de Henares. The work, directed by Diego López de Zúñiga, began in 1502 and lasted fifteen years, with the conversos Alonso de Alcalá, Pablo Coronel and Alfonso de Zamora on the Hebrew and Aramaic section, and the Cretan Demetrio Ducas and Hernán Núñez de Toledo on the Greek; Antonio de Nebrija abandoned the revision of the Latin text over disagreements with Cisneros's approach. Arnao Guillén de Brocar printed the six volumes between 1514 and 1517, with the texts in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Aramaic set in four columns. The cardinal died without ever seeing it published.

1514-1517

Photo: Ricardo Ricote Rodrí… (CC BY 3.0)

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