Rare first edition of a survey of biblical terms. Arranged more or less alphabetically, it explains difficult or distinctive biblical expressions and was intended as a philological aid to understanding Scripture. The author made use of traditional Christian sources in Latin and Greek, as well as Hebrew. Many of the entries therefore also include some Greek or Hebrew text, making the work an early example of Hebrew printing in Antwerp. The present first edition is very rare, as we have not been able to trace any other copies in sales records of the past hundred years.
Bartholomaeus Westheimer (1499-1570), a reform theologian, was a native of Pforzheim, who studied at the University of Heidelberg, and was later active as a pastor in Mulhouse and Horbourg, and a printer in Basel (1536-1547). He was also a versatile humanistic scholar who tried to demonstrate, through the philological care of his biblical commentaries and patristic sources, that the Reformation actually constituted a return to the spirit of the primitive Church. The present work is his main work. It was published twenty times between 1536 and 1544 and became a much consulted biblical handbook.
With a partially crossed out owner's inscription from 1633 at the head of the title page ("Colb. foi [...] Cat. inferibus (?)"), another from 1817 at the bottom ("Bibliothec[a] Cremfens. Schol. piar. 1817"), and annotations in the margins of some of the leaves. The boards are somewhat rubbed, the leather on the spine is cracked, with some loss of material at the head of the spine, lacking the clasps. The leaves are lightly browned, a water stain in the lower inner corner of the first 10 leaves. Otherwise in good condition. Adams W-75; Nijhoff & Kronenberg 4056; STCV 12928852; USTC 403950 (8 copies).