16.09.2014 -14.12.2014
Outdoing Plantin
In 1620, Balthasar came up with a plan to produce a new edition of the Biblia Regia, a multilingual Bible that Plantin had printed in the 16th century. He wanted to outdo his grandfather by also adding the text of the Bible in Arabic. It would be a proper Papal Bible, the ultimate prestige project of the 17th century. Balthasar spared neither expense nor effort. He worked with a Jesuit from Douai who prepared the new edition for him. He also spent a small fortune on books and manuscripts, and paid a special secretary for years to assist in the production of this edition.
Sadly, nothing came of the whole plan: lobbying by competitors from Paris and the ambivalent attitude of the Vatican killed off Balthasar’s prestige project.
