<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Full title:</b> Abdias. Den striit ende dat leven vanden vromen Campioenen (naervolghers vanden alder vroomste[n] Capiteyn onsen Heere Jesus Christus gebenedijt) der glorieuser mannen die twaelf Apostelen. Eerst int Hebreeusch beschreven va[n] Abdias Bisschop van Babylonien, va[n] den Apostele[n] Bisschop gheordineert, welcke altesamen van Eutropio sijne[n] discipel, uute[n] Hebreeusch int Griecx, en[de] daer na van Julio Aphricano, uuten Griecxsche[n] int Latijn (over 1300 Jaren) overgeset sijn. Ende nu eerstmael uuten Latijn in Duytschen ghetranslateert, door Jan vande[n] Bosch, alias Berckelaer, Craenmeester der stadt van Hantwerpen, Nu anderwerf op een nieu herdruckt, ghecorrigeert, gevisiteert, en[de] gheapprobeert.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 8vo. ff. [220]. Contemporary limp vellum with a wrap-around flap on the back cover. Bifolium K4.5 replaced by a very precise near contemporary (ca. 1600?) manuscript copy. Title in a border built up from arabesque typographic ornaments and woodcut publisher's device on the otherwise blank final leaf. Set in textura gothic type, with incidental roman and extensive italic.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most complete copy known (the only other lacking 4 leaves) of the last edition of the very rare Dutch translation by Jan vanden Bosch, alias Berckelaer, of lives of the twelve Apostles, supposedly written in Hebrew in the first century AD by Abdias, the first bishop of Babylon and an associate of the Apostles Simon and Jude. Pope Paul IV declared it apocryphal in the 1550s, and modern scholars support this, suggesting that the work was compiled from various sources (some now surviving and some not) in the late sixth century. The text is now important both for preserving information from some early sources that have not survived and for its influence on later Christians. It is also important as an extremely rare edition by the Antwerp printer Matthias van Roye and publisher Hendrik Wouters. The fact that Jan vanden Bosch translated the Latin into Dutch and published it about ten years after the Pope declared the text apocryphal shows that its popularity and influence could not easily be countered. Peeter van Keerberghen first printed and published the Dutch translation at Antwerp in 1567. Only 8 copies counting all editions together can be located, including the incomplete ones. The present Dutch translation first appeared at the height of the religious turmoil that was sweeping through the Low Countries, culminating in the iconoclasm of the years 1566-1568. The copy is lacking one bifolium, but it must have been lost soon after the book was published, for it was replaced at an early date by a manuscript copy, also on an octavo bifolium. Though these two leaves show no watermark, the handwriting appears to date from ca. 1600. Cf. Belgica Typographica 1541-1600. Nieuwkoop, 5, 6, 7740; J. Machiels, Boekdrukkunst te Gent tot 1560. Gent, 1994, pp. 5-8; USTC 407639, 409815, 409817. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/permalink/01JHU_INST/1lu78g9/alma991009157679707861" rel="nofollow">Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.</a></span></span></p>