Novum Testamentum.

Brown calf binding with raised banding and gilt title on the spine. Embossed decorative border on both boards. In a newly made fitted box.

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In researching the history of 'Novum Testamentum' there are some established facts and then matters of repute - drilling down on repute I am having difficulty in converting repute to fact.

Facts

1. The book was printed by Charlotte Guillard who inherited France's then most prestigious Print shop. Her history and that of the print works along with their production of 'Novum Testamentum' is recorded.
2. The book was given by the French ambassador, Antoine, 1st comte de Noailles, to Queen Mary in July 1554 to mark her marriage to Philip.
3. The Novum Testamentum has handwriting within which is identified with that of Queen Mary Tudor, there are also extensive symbols which are associated with the Jesuits.
4. The Novum Testamentum was removed from the library of Traquair House, Scotland around 1750.
5. Recovered from a French junk shop the book was returned to England circa 2012 where the Novum Testamentum has been re-bound and placed within a protective box.

Repute

1. Elizabeth sent the Novum Testamentum to Mary Queen of Scots who read this book on the eve of her execution (7 February 1587) at Fotheringhay. After Mary's execution, her servant, Jane Kennedy is said to have taken the Novum Testamentum to France before taking it back to Scotland and later offering it to James VI. James refused the testament and consequently the book was taken to Traquair House, outside Pebbles.
2. The Novum Testamentum remained at Traquair until the failure of the 1745, thereafter being transported by Jesuits to France. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A most exceptional book with an unique pedigree. Note: the 16th Century was a time of great flux in Christian views. This New Testament is a product of this flux and marks the burgeoning divide developing in Western Christianity between Protestant and Catholic factions. This is a prominent and very historic Vulgate Bible printed by Charlotte
Guillard of Paris and presented to Queen Mary (1516 - 1558) by the French Ambassador. This Bible is the earliest known edition to reflect the Council of Trent (1545–1563) adjustments. This book is full of Jesuit symbols, it has a most distinguished ownership and during the next two centuries was an English focal point to Roman Catholic unrest.
Queen Mary - The first English queen to rule England in her own right, she was known as "Bloody Mary" for her persecution of Protestants in a vain attempt to restore Catholicism in England.
The Vulgate also called Biblia Vulgata (Bible in common tongue), Latin: is a late- 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church. Later, on his own initiative, Jerome extended this work of revision and translation to include most of the books of the Bible. The Vulgate became progressively adopted as the Bible text within the Western Church. Over succeeding centuries, it eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina. By the 13th century it had taken over from the former version the designation versio vulgata (version commonly used) or vulgata for short. The Vulgate also contains some Vetus Latina translations which Jerome did not work on. The Vulgate was to become the Catholic Church's officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible as the Sixtine Vulgate (1590), then as the Clementine Vulgate (1592), and then as the Nova Vulgata (1979). The Vulgate is still currently used in the Latin Church. The Catholic Church affirmed the Vulgate as its official Latin Bible at the Council of Trent (1545–1563), though there was no authoritative edition at that time. The Clementine edition of the Vulgate became the standard Bible text of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, and remained so until 1979 when the Nova Vulgata was promulgated.

Apud Carolam Guillard: Charlotte Guillard, First Woman Printer of the French Renaissance
Charlotte Guillard (died 1557) was the first woman printer of importance. Guillard worked at the famous Soleil' Or printing house from 1502 until her death. Annie Parent described her as a "notability of the Rue Saint-Jacques",
the street where the shop was located in Paris, France. She became one of the most important printers of the Latin Quarter area in the city of Paris. As a woman, she was officially active with her own imprint during her two widowhood periods, that is to say in 1519–20, and in 1537–57. While she was not the first woman printer, succeeding both Anna Rugerin of Augsburg (1484) and Anna Fabri of Stockholm (1496), she was the first woman printer with a
significantly known career.

Guillard's Biography Early life - Guillard was very likely born in the late 1480s in Saint-Calais, France. Her name is sometime spelled Guillart and in Latin books as Carola Guillard. Living in the province of Maine in France, her parents were Jacques Guillard and Guillemyne Savary. The professions of her parents are unknown, but her known relatives are mostly merchants or lawyers. Guillard had at least three and possibly four sisters and one brother.
First marriage - Guillard showed interest in the printing business as early as 1500. Guillard first married Berthold Rembolt about 1507 (and not 1502 as it has wrongly been assumed). Her first husband worked with the earliest
French printer Ulrich Gering. Their printing business specialised in law and theology. Rembolt died in 1519. Paris businesses and crafts in the sixteenth century were regulated by the guild system.
Second career - In 1520 Guillard married Claude Chevallon, a bookseller who also printed theological books. From this time forward, Guillard was known as "la Chevallonne". She was widowed a second time in 1537. Thereafter, Guillard ran her printing business on her own. Normally women were not allowed to own a business, however they were allowed to take over the business of their husband after their death. The publishing house was led by Guillard, with the help of her correctors: Jean Hucher (until 1538), Jacques Bogard (1538-1541), Louis Miré (1541-1552) and then Guillaume Guillard.] She helped her nephew Pierre Haultin to establish as a printer and a punchcutter. Guillard's works were recognised for their beauty and accuracy. In fact, she built up such a good reputation of accuracy that she was commissioned by Luigi Lippomano, bishop of Verona to publish his works. She was often associated with Guillaume des Boys, her nephew-in-law. Her business was significant: she owned five or six printing presses with about 25-30 employees and published about 200 editions. She catered to students, professional or religious clientele, often printed anti-Protestant books, and offered books in Latin as well as Greek. She probably died in 1557.
More than 400 different libraries worldwide have books printed by Guillard. Further details on the providence of this book are available.

The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity. The New Testament's background, the first division of the Christian Bible, is called the Old Testament, which is based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible; together they are regarded as sacred scripture by Christians. The New Testament is a collection of Christian texts originally written in
the Koine Greek language, at different times by various authors. While the Old Testament canon varies somewhat between different Christian denominations, the 27-book canon of the New Testament has been almost universally recognized within Christianity since at least Late Antiquity. Thus, in almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books:
 4 canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)
 The Acts of the Apostles
 14 Pauline epistles
 7 general epistles, and
 The Book of Revelation.
The earliest known complete list of the 27 books is found in a letter written by Athanasius, a 4th century bishop of Alexandria, dated to 367 AD. The 27-book New Testament was first formally canonised during the councils
of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) in North Africa. Pope Innocent I ratified the same canon in 405, but it is probable that a Council in Rome in 382 under Pope Damasus I gave the same list first. These councils also provided the canon of the Old Testament, which included the apocryphal books. There is no scholarly consensus on the date of composition of the latest New Testament texts. Conservative scholars John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Many other scholars, such as Bart D. Ehrman and Stephen L. Harris, date some New Testament texts much later than this; Richard Pervo dated Luke–Acts to c. AD 115, and David Trobisch places Acts in the mid-to-late second century, contemporaneous with the publication of the first
New Testament canon. The New Oxford Annotated Bible states, "Scholars generally agree that the Gospels were written forty to sixty years after the death of Jesus. They are not eyewitness or contemporary accounts of Jesus's
life and teaching. Sola scriptura ("by scripture alone" in English) is a theological doctrine held by some Protestant Christian denominations that posits the Christian scriptures as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice. While the scriptures' meaning is mediated through many kinds of subordinate authority—such as the ordinary teaching offices of a denominated church, the ecumenical creeds and the councils of the Catholic church, amongst others—sola scriptura in contrast rejects any original infallible authority other than the Bible In this view, all subordinate authority is derived from the authority of the scriptures and is therefore subject to reform when compared
to the teaching of the Bible. Church councils, preachers, Bible commentators, private revelation, or even a message allegedly from an angel or an apostle are not considered an original authority alongside the Bible in the sola scriptura approach. Sola scriptura is a formal principle of many Protestant Christian denominations, and one of the five solae. It was a foundational doctrinal principle of the Protestant Reformation held by many of the Reformers, who
taught that authentication of scripture is governed by the discernible excellence of the text, as well as the personal witness of the Holy Spirit to the heart of each man. Some evangelical and Baptist denominations state the
doctrine of sola scriptura more strongly: scripture is self-authenticating, clear (perspicuous) to the rational reader, its own interpreter ("Scripture interprets Scripture"), and sufficient of itself to be the final authority of Christian doctrine.
By contrast, Anglicanism and Methodism, also considered forms of Protestantism, uphold the doctrine of prima scriptura, with scripture being illumined by tradition, reason and experience, thus completing the four sides of, in Methodism, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that to "accept the books of the canon is also to accept the ongoing Spirit-led authority of the church's tradition, which recognizes, interprets, worships, and corrects itself by the witness of Holy Scripture". The Catholic Church officially regards tradition and scripture as
equal, as interpreted by the Roman magisterium and describes this as "one common source … with two distinct modes of transmission", while some Protestant authors call it "a dual source of revelation". The Canon of Trent is the list of books officially considered canonical at the Council of Trent. A decree, the De Canonicis Scripturis, from the Council's
fourth session (of 4 April 1546), issued an anathema on dissenters of the books affirmed in Trent. The Council confirmed an identical list already locally approved in 1442 by the Council of Florence (Session 11, 4 February
1442), which had existed in the earliest canonical lists from the synods of Carthage and Rome in the fourth century.
The list confirmed that the deuterocanonical books were on a par with the other books of the canon (while Luther placed these books in the Apocrypha of his canon) and ended debate on the Antilegomena and coordinated church tradition with the Scriptures as a rule of faith. It also affirmed Jerome's Latin translation, the Vulgate, to be authoritative for the text of Scripture, contrary to Protestant views that the Greek and Hebrew texts were more authoritative. Later, on 3 September 1943, Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu, which allowed Catholic translations to be based on texts other than the Latin Vulgate. The Vulgate (Biblia Vulgata, Latin) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was to become the Catholic Church's officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible as the Sixtine Vulgate (1590), then as the Clementine Vulgate (1592); the Vulgate is still currently used in the Latin Church. The translation was largely the work of Jerome of Stridon who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church. On his own initiative, he extended this work of revision and translation to include most of the books of the Bible. Once published, the new version became widely adopted. Over succeeding centuries, it eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina. By the 13th century it had taken over from the former version the designation versio vulgata (the "version commonly used") or vulgata for short. The Vulgate also contains some Vetus Latina translations which Jerome did not work on.

The Catholic Church affirmed the Vulgate as its official Latin Bible at the Council of Trent (1545–1563), though there was no authoritative edition at that time. The Clementine edition of the Vulgate became the standard Bible
text of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, and remained so until 1979 when the Nova Vulgata was promulgated.
Jerome Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; c. 342 – c. 347 – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Latin priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. Jerome was born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia. He is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin (the translation that became known as the Vulgate) and his commentaries on the whole Bible. Jerome attempted to create a translation of the Old Testament based on a Hebrew version, rather than the Septuagint,
as Latin Bible translations used to be performed before him. His list of writings is extensive, and beside his Biblical works, he wrote polemical and historical essays, always from a theologian's perspective. Jerome was known for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan centres such as Rome. In many cases, he
focused his attention on the lives of women and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus should live her life. This focus stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were
members of affluent senatorial families. Thanks to Jerome's contribution to Christianity, he is recognised as
a saint and Doctor of the Church by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, and the Anglican Communion. His feast day is 30 September. The Council of Florence is the seventeenth ecumenical council recognised by the Catholic Church, held between 1431 and 1449. It was convoked as the Council of Basel by Pope Martin V shortly before his death in February 1431 and took place in the context of the Hussite wars in Bohemia and
the rise of the Ottoman Empire. At stake was the greater conflict between the Conciliar movement and the principle of papal supremacy. The Council entered a second phase after Emperor Sigismund's death in 1437. Pope Eugene IV convoked a rival Council of Ferrara on 8 January 1438 and succeeded in drawing some of the Byzantine ambassadors who were in attendance at Basel to Italy. The remaining members of the Council of Basel first suspended him, declared him a heretic, and then in November 1439 elected an antipope, Felix V. The rival Council of Florence (moved to
avoid the plague in Ferrara) concluded in 1445 after negotiating unions with the various eastern churches. This bridging of the Great Schism proved fleeting, but was a political coup for the papacy. In 1447, Sigismund's
successor Frederick III commanded the city of Basel to expel the Council of Basel; the rump council reconvened in Lausanne before dissolving itself in 1449. The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (from the Latin: septuaginta, lit. 'seventy'; often abbreviated 70; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Koine Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible, various biblical apocrypha, and deuterocanonical books. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch, were translated in the mid-3rd century BC. The remaining
books of the Greek Old Testament are presumably translations of the 2nd century BC. The full title (Ancient Greek: Ἡ:  'The Translation of the Seventy') derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas that the Hebrew Torah was
translated into Greek at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BC) by 70 Jewish scholars or, according to later tradition, 72: six scholars from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who independently produced
identical translations. The miraculous character of the Aristeas legend might indicate the esteem and disdain in which the translation was held at the time; Greek translations of Hebrew scriptures were in circulation among the Alexandrian Jews. Egyptian papyri from the period have led most scholars to view as probable Aristeas's dating of the translation of the Pentateuch to the third century BCE. Whatever share the Ptolemaic court may have had in
the translation, it satisfied a need felt by the Jewish community, in whom the knowledge of Hebrew was waning. However, the authenticity of Aristeas' letter has been questioned; "[i]t was the English monk Humphrey Hody (1684) who was able to show convincingly that the letter was not by a contemporary of Philadelphus."

Greek scriptures were in wide use during the Second Temple period, because few people could read Hebrew at that time. The text of the Greek Old Testament is quoted more often than the original Hebrew Bible text in the
Greek New Testament (particularly the Pauline epistles) by the Apostolic Fathers, and later by the Greek Church Fathers. Modern critical editions of the Greek Old Testament are based on the Codices Alexandrinus, Sinaiticus,
and Vaticanus. These fourth- and fifth-century Greek Old Testament manuscripts have different lengths. The Codex Alexandrinus, for example, contains all four books of the Maccabees; the Codex Sinaiticus contains 1 and
4 Maccabees, and the Codex Vaticanus contains none of the four books.

Please remember that an old or antique book is not necessary valuable just because it's old. Common books like the works of William Shakespeare, prayer books, bibles and encyclopedias were printed in huge quantities during
the Victorian era and usually have little value.
KEY FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE BOOK VALUE
 Age can be important, if before 1800; so, 17th century, 16th century, and 15th century may be more valuable.
 Condition is very important and will greatly influence value. A beaten-up old book that is falling apart will have little value.
 First editions (sometimes new editions) are sought-after by book collectors and a first edition is usually more valuable than a later printing. A first edition signed by the author will have even greater
value.
 Scarcity influences value.
 For hardcover books published from the 20th century onwards, the presence of a dust jacket and its condition also greatly affects value. Remember that a book's monetary value depends on the market and what a buyer is willing to pay.
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