[320] Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, complectentia Textus Originales, Hebraicum cum Pentateucho Samaritano, Chaldaicum, Græcum; Versionumque antiquarum, Samaritanæ Græcæ LXX Interpr. Chaldaicæ, Syriacæ, Arabicæ, Æthiopicæ, Persicæ, Vulg. Lat. Quicquid comparari poterat. Cum Textuum et Versionum Orientalium Translationibus Latinis . . . Omnia eo ordine disposita, ut Textus cum Versionibus uno intuitu conferri possint. Cum Apparatu, etc. etc. . . . Edidit Brianus Waltonus, S.T.D. Londini. Imprimebat Thomas Roycroft, 1657. 6 vols., fol.
[321] One of the compositors employed on the work was Ichabod Dawks (grandfather to Wm. Bowyer), of whose son and his curious script type, see The Tatler, No. 178, etc.
[323] In some cases a few of the matrices have undergone renovation in the hands of their successive owners.
[324] “The Æthiopic of the Congregation,” i.e., of the Propaganda at Rome, “is not to be compared with ours. And Ludolphus, whose abode was at Gotha, sent his Lexicon to be published at London, where it was printed by Mr. Roycroft upon the type of the English Polyglot” (Mores, p. 12).
[325] “The elegant face of the Samaritan is justly attributed by Cellarius to the English, for it was first used in our Polyglot. It differs widely from the type used by Scaliger in his Emend. Temp., and by Leusden at the end of his Scholæ Syriacæ, and from another used in an encomiastic of Abr. Ecchelensis upon F. Kircher, which type belonged to the Congregation at Rome; and which was afterwards more neatly cut by Voskens” (ibid., p. 13).
[326] In his “loyal” dedication, Walton asserts that from the outset he had intended to dedicate the work to Charles II, and that Cromwell’s patronage of the work had been offered only as the price of a public compliment for himself (Todd, i, 82 et seq.).
[327] “The first view of this dedication,” he says, “will prove it to have been printed with different and inferior types, the hasty produce of a courteous after thought” (Introd. Classics, i, 27).
[328] “Thomas Roycroft died August 10, 1677. In 1675 he was master of the Stationers’ Company, and in 1677 he gave to them two silver mugs, weight 27 ozs. 3 dwts. In the rear of the altar at St. Bartholemew’s the Great is this epitaph:—‘M.S. Hic juxta situs est Thomas Roycroft, armiger, linguis Orientalibus Typographus Regius, placidissimis moribus et antiquâ probitate ac fide memorandus, quorum gratiâ optimi civis famam jure merito adeptus est. Militiæ civicæ Vicetribunus. Nec minus apud exteros notus ob libros elegantissimis suis typis editos, inter quos sanctissimum illud Bibliorum Polyglottorum, opus quam maxime eminet. Obiit die 10 Augusti, ann. Reparatæ Sal. MDCLXXVII, postquam LVI ætatis suæ annum implevisset. Parenti optimè merito, Samuel Roycroft, filius unicus, hoc monumentum pie posuit.’”
[329] Lexicon Heptaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Æthiopicum, Arabicum, conjunctim; et Persicum separatim, etc., etc. Authore Edmundo Castello, S.T.D., etc. Londini, Imprimebat Thomas Roycroft, L.L. Orientalium Typographus Regius, 1669. Two vols., fol.