Testame[n]ta duodecim patriarcharu[m] filiorum Jacob. e greco in latinu[m] versa Roberto Linconiensi Episcopo interprete

4to. ff. [24]. Modern hard boards, covered in blue and white patterned paper. Title page within engraved border. Engraved initial. Ex libris ticket of Leonis S. Olschki with manuscript inventory number. On title page: "3", "21", "8" handwritten in ink. On f. [1]v, the early handstamp of the Royal Society stamp "Soc. Regie Londi[...] ex dono Henr. Howard Norfolciensi,” i.e. part of the Duke of Norfolk’s gift to the Society in 1667, and their ‘Roy. Soc. Sold’ stamp on the last page. English Short Title Catalogue on-line (S491943) considers ("conjectures from internal evidence") that the book might have been published in London.

First printing of the apocryphal Testamentum in any form, this being the Latin version translated and edited by Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, in 1242 (teste Matthew Paris). The apocryphal Testaments of the Twelve Sons of Jacob (or Twelve Patriarchs) were an early Christian adaptation of a Semitic ethical improvisation. The Greek text, representing either an early Christian work, or a late Semitic one (c.100 BC) with Christian interpolations, was extant by the second century AD. See H. M. Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, 1501-1600, in Cambridge Libraries. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1967, P432.

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