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ANTIQUARIAN, RARE & COLLECTABLE BOOKS & SOUTH EAST ASIAN ANTIQUES
ANTIQUARIAN, RARE & COLLECTABLE BOOKS & SOUTH EAST ASIAN ANTIQUES
Liturgia Graeca (Greek Book of Common Prayer) - with Psalterion tou David, Cambridge; John Field, 1665.

Liturgia Graeca (Greek Book of Common Prayer) - with Psalterion tou David, Cambridge; John Field, 1665.

LAN9952
$547.00 - $547.00
$547.00
$547.00 - $547.00
$547.00

Liturgia Graeca – Biblos tēs dēmosias euchēs tēs Ekklēsias Anglikanēs kai tōn Psalmon tou Dauiḏ (The Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, and the Psalms of David, in Greek).

Cambridge: John Field, 1665. First edition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer translated into Greek, with separately titled Psalter.


Scarce first edition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer translated into Greek, printed at Cambridge with a separately titled Psalterion. Complete, in early full calf with dotted gilt borders and gilt-ruled spine, title label reads LITURGIA GRAECA (Latin). Provenance: Cortachy Castle Library, with Lord Ogilvy inscription dated 1869. A well-preserved Restoration-era Greek liturgical imprint.

A Cambridge University Press printing of the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer translated into Greek, “Liturgia Graeca”, followed (as a separate work with its own title-page) by the Greek Psalter arranged for the weekly divisions used in Anglican worship. Greek BCPs from the Restoration era were produced for learned Anglican and eastern-church use; they are prized examples of 17th-century Greek typography in England.

Imprints shown in the volume

  • Title 1: [Liturgia Graeca…] “The Book of Public Prayer and of the Administration of the Sacraments and other rites of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England” (in Greek). Imprint in Greek: Cambridge, printed by John Field, printer to the University, 1665.

  • Title 2 (mid-volume): Ψαλτήριον τοῦ Δαβίδ (Psalterion tou David), with the large Cambridge University device and the same imprint, Cambridge, John Field, 1665.

Collation and pagination 

  • First work (Greek BCP): (1) title + (prelims 34pp). + 126pp text.

  • Second work (Greek Psalter): (1) divisional title + 171pp text.

  • Double column throughout; a calendar and tables in Greek precede the services.

Binding

  • Full calf, late 17th or (more probably) early 18th century.

  • Boards panelled with a dotted gilt border; spine with gilt rules (no raised bands).

  • Black morocco title-piece lettered “LITURGIA GRAECA” (Latin, the customary bibliographical form).

  • Joints and extremities rubbed; corners lightly bumped (top-front corner more so). Joints sound and the book is securely bound. Main title page detached along top 5cm, but still held securely otherwise.

Provenance

  • Cortachy Castle Library, Angus, Scotland (shelf label to pastedown), seat of the Earls of Airlie.

  • Contemporary or early hand to front endpaper: “Lord Ogilvy 1869” (in Greek and English).

Condition

  • Text clean and legible on good paper with expected age-toning and the odd minor handling mark.

  • No splits to the joints. Title-piece rubbed; mild wear to corners and board edges.

  • A well-preserved and honest copy.

Language
Ancient/Koine Greek throughout. The spine title “Liturgia Graeca” is Latin, as usual for this edition.

Two title-pages:
The printer issued the Psalter as an integral but separately signed and titled part following the Greek BCP. It begins with its own title-page (Ψαλτήριον τοῦ Δαβίδ) and pagination, hence the second title within the same binding.

Size and weight

  • Approximately 140 × 80 × 18 mm

  • Weight c. 154 g

A scarce Restoration-era Greek Book of Common Prayer with the Cambridge Greek Psalter, in a period calf binding and with distinguished Scottish provenance.