first edition
1628
by [New Testament in Greek]
1628. Sedani: Ex Typographia & typis novissimis Ioannis Iannoni, 1628.
32mo, (7.5 x 4.5 cm); A-Z8, 2A-2M8, 2N6. Pp. [1-3] 4-571 [572]; 2 binder's endleaves at front and 2 in back. 286 ff. Original mottled calf, backstrip gilt-stamped with putti, covers with single gilt panel. A very fine copy in a red morocco pull-off box, bookplate of Joseph Rownson.
§ First edition of what was then the tiniest version of the New Testament ever printed. Dibdin notes: "This edition has a kind of celebrity from being the smallest volume of the Greek Testament ever published. The text is an exact reimpression of the Elzevir edition of 1624, omitting the introductory pages of parallel passages from the Old Testament."
Jean Jannon (died 20 December 1658) was a French Protestant printer, type designer, punchcutter and typefounder active in Sedan in the seventeenth century. He was a reasonably prolific printer by contemporary standards, printing several hundred books. Jannon began his career as a printer, first attested in Paris, where he apparently worked for the Estienne family in his early career, and then in Sedan. He mentions in one preface of hearing of the early history of printing in Mainz, so possibly he served an apprenticeship in Germany. As a punchcutter, he is known for matrices of three large sizes of type sold to the Imprimerie Royale, which still exist, and for the tiny roman and Greek fonts he cut. These are known as the "Sédanoise" fonts and Jannon used them to publish a Virgil (1625), a Horace (1627), this Greek New Testament (1628) and La Sainte Bible, Geneva version, 1633.
Bondy: The Greek Testament is "printed in a superb tiny Greek type, la petite sédanoise, which has been highly praised by many bibliographers. An even smaller Greek font was used by Corrall for Pickering's 1828 edition. (Louis Bondy, Miniature Books p. 8)
Houghton catalogue, Christie's 1979, nos. 252-253.
Sheringham, H. T. "A Library in Miniature Part I" The Connoisseur 1902 p. 224. (Inventory #: 126354)
32mo, (7.5 x 4.5 cm); A-Z8, 2A-2M8, 2N6. Pp. [1-3] 4-571 [572]; 2 binder's endleaves at front and 2 in back. 286 ff. Original mottled calf, backstrip gilt-stamped with putti, covers with single gilt panel. A very fine copy in a red morocco pull-off box, bookplate of Joseph Rownson.
§ First edition of what was then the tiniest version of the New Testament ever printed. Dibdin notes: "This edition has a kind of celebrity from being the smallest volume of the Greek Testament ever published. The text is an exact reimpression of the Elzevir edition of 1624, omitting the introductory pages of parallel passages from the Old Testament."
Jean Jannon (died 20 December 1658) was a French Protestant printer, type designer, punchcutter and typefounder active in Sedan in the seventeenth century. He was a reasonably prolific printer by contemporary standards, printing several hundred books. Jannon began his career as a printer, first attested in Paris, where he apparently worked for the Estienne family in his early career, and then in Sedan. He mentions in one preface of hearing of the early history of printing in Mainz, so possibly he served an apprenticeship in Germany. As a punchcutter, he is known for matrices of three large sizes of type sold to the Imprimerie Royale, which still exist, and for the tiny roman and Greek fonts he cut. These are known as the "Sédanoise" fonts and Jannon used them to publish a Virgil (1625), a Horace (1627), this Greek New Testament (1628) and La Sainte Bible, Geneva version, 1633.
Bondy: The Greek Testament is "printed in a superb tiny Greek type, la petite sédanoise, which has been highly praised by many bibliographers. An even smaller Greek font was used by Corrall for Pickering's 1828 edition. (Louis Bondy, Miniature Books p. 8)
Houghton catalogue, Christie's 1979, nos. 252-253.
Sheringham, H. T. "A Library in Miniature Part I" The Connoisseur 1902 p. 224. (Inventory #: 126354)
(415) 986-5826
