(BIBLE,
Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Ancient Syriac (in ...

Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Ancient Syriac (in Hebrew characters)). Chamishah Chumshei Torah [-end] / [Novum Testamentum Graece] / Diyathika Chadata. Printed in double columns. Opening title in architectural arch.
Three volumes bound in one:
     
* I: Unvocalized Hebrew text. pp. 389.
* II: Syriac in unvocalized Hebrew characters. Issued without a title. pp. 121, (3).
* III: Cursive Greek type. Issued without a title or colophon. pp. 208 (last page blank). Stained and dampsoiled. Contemporary vellum, worn. 8vo. Vinograd, Antwerp 18, 19; Adams B-1233; Darlow & Moule 8951 (cf. 5102, 4638); unrecorded by Sorgeloos.

Christopher Plantin, Antwerp: 1573.

These three Bible editions - the Old Testament in Hebrew, with the addition of the New Testament in Greek and Syriac - were printed by Plantin in order to present the whole Bible “in the original tongues.” Both the Hebrew and Syriac Bibles were printed in the same minute Hebrew type, and were edited by Plantin’s son-in-law Francis Rapheleng. “If of dubious utility for converting Jews to Christianity, Syriac in Hebrew characters was obviously a boon for the Biblical scholar who had mastered three Biblical languages and was perhaps contemplating a fourth.”
     See D.S. Berkowitz, In Remembrance of Creation: Evolution of Art and Scholarship in the Medieval and Renaissance Bible (1968), no.172. For a most thorough bibliographic examination of these three editions, see Mehlman nos. 1899, 1883 and 31.