The famous New Testament in pocket size, printed by Simon de Colines TESTAMENT, NEW.- Sanctum Iesu Christi evangelium. Secundum Matthaeum Secundum Marcum Secundum Lucam Secundum Ioannem. Acta Apostolorum.- (second part:) Pauli Apostoli epistolae... Epistolae Catholicae... Apocalypsis Beati Ioannis.

      Paris, Simon de Colines, 1524 (colophon of part 2: 22 April 1524).. 2 parts in one vol. 16mo. Text space 80 x 44 mm. Seventeenth-century blind stamped vellum with title in ink on spine. Four charming small woodcut portraits of the evangelists at the beginning of the gospels (ca. 15 x 20 mm) and woodcut initials in text. Finely rubricated in red throughout. 280; 204, (24) ff.. Very rare second edition of the four parts of the New Testament of the famous Bible in pocket format as published by Simon Colines: (1) the four gospels (ff. 2-216); (2) Acts of the Apostles (ff. 217-80); (3) Epistles: Epistola Pauli (ff. 4-142), Epistolae Catholicae (ff. 144-74); (4) Apocalypsis (ff. 175-204), and index. De Colines also printed the Old Testament selling all parts also seperately. The first edition of his Bible was published in 1522-23.Simon de Colines (between 1470 and 1490 - 1546) was one the greatest names of French publishing at the time of the Renaissance, he was a scholar, printer, publisher and punch-cutter at the same time. He also was the foreman of the famous Estienne printing firm founded in Paris in 1504/5. After the death of the founder Henri Estienne in 1520, Colines married his widow Guyonne Viart, became tutor of his three sons, and ran the firm until Henri's son Robert came of age. In 1526, De Colines formally handed over the business to Robert Estienne. In the meantime he had established his own firm in 1520 which he continued till his death in 1546. Colines used elegant roman and italic types and a Greek type, with accents, that was superior to its predecessors. He is believed to have designed some of his types himself; some were designed by Geofroy Tory. His books, often small in format, are superbly crafted. De Colines began a tradition of biblical scholarship and publications around 1521. 'It was at this time that De Colines began to publish a series of little volumes that were innovative both in spirit and in form, consisting of the four parts of the Novum Testamentum , for which his step-son the young Robert I Estienne (1503-1559) had revised the text after ancient Greek manuscripts, and which were specially printed in a tiny16mo pocket format to make the edition accessible to a wider public, and in a roman type of small body known as Petit Romain. ' As a result of the publishing success of the 16mo Bible, it may have been this typeface that inspired the terms 'Colineus' and 'lettre Colinee' used forty years later by the Antwerp printer Christopher Plantin to designate a type close in size.' (Schreiber). Fine copy with two 16th-century full-page woodcuts, nicely coloured by a contemporary hand: (1) illustrating Mathew 16: 'Euntes in mundum universum predicate evangelium omni creaturae' (witten by a contemporary hand above and beneath the woodcut, pasted to the verso of the front cover), and (2) a woodcut of the Trinity with a caption in a contemporary hand beneath. - (Some printed marginal annotations shaved). Renouard, Colines , pp. 59-60; Schreiber p. xlviii; cf. Darlow & Moule 6105; Delaveau & Hillard 4372; not in STC French.