Testamenti Novi (1564)

The small edition is the Testamenti Novi, printed and published in Lyon by the firm of Sebastian Gryphius in 1564, the year of Shakespeare's birth. This edition offers numerous illustrations representing the stories and themes of the New Testament. The illustrations in this small edition are highly detailed, but difficult to see with the naked eye. Once this edition is scanned and made into high-resolution images the reader may expand these images to experience and study in the art of these exquisite engravings and minute details of how New Testament writing is presented visually.

Testamenti Novi editio vulgate (Bible with Pauline epistles)
Lyon: Héritiers Sébastien Gryphe, 1564.
16mo. 496, 343 (xvii) pp. (Signature: a-z8, A-H8, aa-xx8, yy4, zz8; gatherings x and y transposed). Roman and Italic letter. Gryphius’ griffin device on little page, 96 metal-cuts, some repeated, historiated woodcut initials, woodcut headpieces, early autograph, illegible at foot of title page, C20th armorial bookplate on pastedown, C18th library stamps on verso of title page. Light age yellowing, title page fractionally dusty, the marginal mark or spot. A very good copy in contemporary vellum over thin boards, yapp edges remains on pigskin ties, covers bordered with a double blind rule, spine blind ruled in compartments. [USTC 15305; Brun, 270p. (1542 ed.); Darlow & Moule vol. II pt. 2, 6125 (1542 ed. With the New Testament in a 1544 issue); Mortimer French I, 90 (1560 ed.)] (WABP-41055)

Healing and miracles by Jesus (p. 29)

Jesus's entry into Jerusalem (p. 76)

Crucifixion (p. 110)

Resurrection of Jesus (p. 114)

Project Team

Our project team in Tokyo began our work in conjunction with the Digital Access team at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. The project has enjoyed the gracious assistance of the staff at the Aoyama Gakuin Shiryo (Archives) Center. We are also closely aligned with the Aoyama Gakuin Christian Activities Center at our university, which supports a non-discriminatory and ecumenical approach to religious worship. The technical effort we are using to transition rare books into open-access digital editions is not unlike the work of early printers in the 15th and 16th centuries, who used moveable type to reproduce and distribute works that were only in manuscript form. In our age, we are faced with the challenge of making these early editions accessible to all, an effort that requires hours of hands-on work and great care. Team Members Thomas Dabbs, Co-Director Professor Dabbs serves on the faculty of English and American Literature at AGU, where he teaches Shakespeare

The Project and Our Continuing Mission

The AGU Digital Access Project provides online access to special collections held by Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, with a focus on digitizing rare bibles and other religious editions within our library system. This project was begun in 2018 with support from the Aoyama Vision Initiative in conjunction with the Folger library 's digital access team in Washington, D.C. We also collaborated with the Aoyama Gakuin Religious Center and with the help and kind cooperation of the university Shiryo (Archives) Center, which curates many of these books. Though our progress was halted for a period by the Covid 19 pandemic, we are now moving forward with generous support from the Aoyama Gakuin University Information Media Center and the University’s Institute of the Humanities. Biblia Latina (1478) The Aoyama Gakuin Archives along with the university library system hold many items of historical significance, including rare print editions of religious works in Latin, Japanese, Englis

Biblia Latina (1478)

The AGU digital access team has digitized the 15th-century Bible Hieronymi , or Biblia Latina, from the Aoyama Archive. This edition is an early print version of Jerome's Vulgate. A full list of references to this edition and holdings may be viewed at the British Library's Incunabula Short Title Catalogue . Professor Shinichi Takeuchi of the AGU Department of English has studied this edition. Below is a translation of his commentary on this work: " From the mid-15th century, when Gutenberg began utilizing mechanical movable type, to the time when printing became prevalent at the turn of the 16th century, this is a special period in the history of the book. Books printed during this early period of moveable type are called incunabula . This is a crucial period that saw a transition from hand-transcription to a new era of reproducing texts with mechanical movable type presses. Within just half a century, upwards to potentially 40,000 titles and 12 million copies of

AGU Digital Access Project