“The Most Important Typographic Achievement”

In 1567, during the period when resistance to Spanish rule was increasing in the Low Countries, Spain’s King Philip II sent the Duke of Alba to serve as governor there. With full authority from the king, the duke endeavored to extinguish the growing Protestant resistance. Plantin therefore began a monumental project that he hoped would erase all suspicion of heresy. He aspired to print a scholarly edition of the Bible texts in their original languages. For this new edition, Plantin succeeded in obtaining the support of Philip II. The king promised financial aid and sent the noted humanist Arias Montano to be a supervisor of the project.

Montano had a gift for language, and he worked for 11 hours a day. He was assisted by Spanish, Belgian, and French linguists. Their aim was to prepare a new version of the prestigious Complutensian Polyglot.b In addition to the Latin Vulgate, the Greek Septuagint, and the original Hebrew text, Plantin’s new Polyglot Bible included an Aramaic Targum and the Syriac Peshitta, along with their respective literal Latin translations.

Printing began in 1568. The colossal task was completed by 1572. It was fast work for the day. In a letter to King Philip II, Montano wrote: “More is accomplished here in one month than in Rome in a year.” Plantin printed 1,213 copies of the new Polyglot Bible, each composed of a set of eight large volumes. The title page bore a printed illustration of a lion, a bull, a wolf, and a lamb peacefully eating from the same trough, thus depicting Isaiah 65:25. The price of a set not yet bound in volume form was 70 guilders​—a considerable sum, since the average family then earned about 50 guilders a year. The complete set came to be known as the Antwerp Polyglot. It was also called the Biblia Regia (Royal Bible) because King Philip II had sponsored it.

Even though Pope Gregory XIII approved the Bible, Arias Montano was severely criticized for his work. One reason was that Montano regarded the original Hebrew text as superior to the Latin Vulgate. His main opponent was León de Castro, a Spanish theologian who considered the Latin Vulgate to be the absolute authority. De Castro accused Montano of infecting the text with anti-Trinitarian philosophy. For instance, de Castro particularly noted that the Syriac Peshitta omitted from 1 John 5:7 the spurious addition, “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” (King James Version) The Spanish Inquisition, however, cleared Montano of all suspicion of heresy. The Antwerp Polyglot is considered by some “the most important typographic achievement by a single printer during the 16th century.”

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The Antwerp Polyglot contains the Hebrew text, the Latin “Vulgate,” and the Greek “Septuagint,” as well as the Syriac “Peshitta” and an Aramaic Targum along with their Latin translations

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By courtesy of Museum Plantin-Moretus/​Stedelijk Prentenkabinet Antwerpen