Eramus’s Translation of the New Testament

Working my way through one of the many piles of books awaiting cataloguing this morning, I found an intriguing volume, and one which is beyond my skills and knowledge to identify or verify with any certainty.

It’s an old volume, in a binding suggestive of the early 18th century, filled with blank pages, on which have been pasted, one per page, 16 beautiful engravings, but the volume provides very few further superficial details.

There is what appears to be an old bookseller’s ticket inserted in the volume, which reads:

“They [presumably referring to the engravings] are from an edition of Eramus’s translation of the New Testament printed by F Gryphius at Paris in 1552. The title page reads:

Novum Testmentum, per D Eramuns [sic] Roterodamum novissime recognitum: & insignium historiarum simulachris, cum venustati, tum veritati, accomodis illustratum. Excudebat Fran. Gryphius, an M.D.LII”

There is however no title page as such present in this volume; the bookseller may have been referring to the volume from which the engravings were removed. There is a manuscript title, photographed below.

There’s a bookplate on the front endpaper, together with what is perhaps a more recent, round ownership stamp.

The engravings, all of which appear below, are beautiful. Any information – or evens thoughts – very gratefully received.