R.J. Wilkinson

Orientalism, Aramaic and Kabbalah in the Catholic Reformation: The First Printing of the Syriac New Testament

This work shows how the first edition of the Syriac New Testament illustrates how Syriac and other Oriental languages were received in the West by Catholic Kabbalistic scholars. The contribution of Egidio da Viterbo and Guillaume Postel is emphasised.

The Kabbalistic Scholars of the Antwerp Polyglot Bible

This work exposes the eschatological timetable which propted the petition for the Antwerp Polyglot and the Christian kabbalistic motivation of the scholars who worked on the text. This tradition is then traced to the 1584 Paris edition of the Syriac New Testament.

The Northern Scholars: Masius

This chapter discusses Andreas Masius and his enthusiasm for a Polyglot-and one with Syriac too. It addresses Guillaume Postel and his remarkable religious imagination, for in the miraculous events of 1566 he was to see what he called the Beginning of the Restoration, and the consequential need to broadcast his special message and to evangelise the Moslems. It was that motivation for the great work lay, not only for Postel himself but also for Guy Lefevre de la Boderie and his brother, and Postels other pupil Jean Boulaese. The Antwerp Polyglot was inspired not least by Postels eschatological timetable. Masius did not however neglect his interest in the Syriac New Testament. Though there was confessional controversy generated around Tremelliuss edition, and academic rivalry with respect to the editio princeps on the part of the Antwerp Polyglot scholars, it is worth remembering again just how few Syriac scholars there were.Keywords: Andreas Masius; Antwerp Polyglot; Beginning of the Restoration; editio princeps; Guillaume Postel; Guy Lefevre de la Boderie; Syriac New Testament

The Polyglot: The Syriac New Testament And Associated Kabbalistic Material

This chapter considers the material from the North European Scholars in the Antwerp Polyglot which may be considered as kabbalistic. This material is found primarily in Volume VI with the edition of the Syriac New Testament. Volume VI of the Polyglot comprised, in addition to a Greek lexicon and grammar, Raphelengiuss Thesaurus hebraicae linguae and a Grammatica Chaldaea of twelve pages, a Dictionarium syro-chaldaicum G. Fabritii Boderani, Masiuss Syriac grammar and his Syrorum Peculium. The chapter reviews the contribution of Masius. In contrast to Guy Lefevre de la Boderies Aramaic Lexicon, Masiuss work is confined to Syriac words and the clarification of their usage. Turning finally to his own edition, Guy describes his own rapt encounter with the Syriac version of the New Testament, his own eighteen-month work of transcription and translation completed in 1567 and Plantins Royal commission to produce the Polyglot.Keywords: Antwerp Polyglot; Guy Lefevre de la Boderies Lexicon; kabbalistic material; Masiuss Syriac grammar; Syriac New Testament; Syrorum Peculium

The Northern Scholars: Guy Lefèvre De La Boderie

Guy Lefevre de la Boderie was a pupil of Postel and in a sense became his representative in the production of the Antwerp Polyglot. After the author has considered Guys contribution to the Antwerp Polyglot and considered that bible and its fate in some detail, he traces the continuity in world-view and scholarship between Guys two editions, the Antwerp Polyglot and that of 1584, and to observe the afterlife of Postels kabbalistic legacy even beyond his death. In 1570 Guy worked on his Dictionarium, and Plantin wrote repeatedly to Masius insisting that Guy was no rival. Having seen that Plantin had probably originally intended that Masius should take a large part in the project, but subsequently was persuaded that Masiuss reputation for heterodoxy prohibited this, one can perhaps understand his delicacy in handling Masiuss sensitivities.Keywords: Antwerp Polyglot; Guy Lefevre de la Boderie; Postels kabbalistic legacy

The Northern Scholars: The Role Of Postel In The Antwerp Polyglot

Guillaume Postel was in many ways the most important figure amongst the sixteenth-century Catholic kabbalists. The author argues that Postel was the consistent presence behind all the sixteenth-century Catholic editions of the Syriac New Testament as he will be seen also to be the moving force behind the Antwerp Polyglot. This chapter reviews Postels determined efforts to produce this polyglot until the Antwerp project was well underway. Thus a bible in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and, in the New Testament, Syriac has been printed by Plantin, but we are still awaiting the Arabic version. This claim of Boulaese and, of course, of Postel to have sought to promote the cause of the Antwerp Polyglot, and particularly of an Arabic Bible, by the small similarly polyglot pamphlet Boulaese placed in the hands of the King of Spain 5 May 1567 is essential to understanding the genesis of the Antwerp Polyglot.Keywords: Antwerp Polyglot; Guillaume Postel; sixteenth-century Catholic kabbalists; Spain; Syriac New Testament