[Biblia] Epistolae Pauli.
Paris, Henri [I] Estienne, 1512 (dedication copy)

First edition of two Latin versions of the Pauline Epistles, edited by Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples: in addition to the standard Vulgate translation by Hieronymus, Lefèvre offers his own, corrected version which he had printed in a smaller type and which he cautiously presents as a 'contribution to a better understanding'. His elaborate comments on the letters show that he read them in a spiritual rather than a dogmatic sense.

In one of the three copies owned by the BPH, bound in the Carthusian Monastery of Marienlager at Weddern (Germany), the comments have been censored in many places, for instance by pasting in paper slips; the censored passages involve 'hazardous' theological interpretations of the words of Paul (The illustrations show the same pages from the censored and a not-censored copy). The third copy is the dedication copy to Cardinal Briçonnet, printed on vellum. For this special copy the printer has removed the large woodcut capitals and left these spaces blank. They were filled in with hand painted initials.