Justini en Tertulliani Verantwoording voor de Christenen, tegens de Heydenen; als mede Minutii Felicis t'Samen-spraak tussen Octavius en Caecilius. Ook zijn hier achter by-gevoegt, de brieven van Clemens Romanus en Policarpus.

Amsterdam, Gedrukt by Jan Rieuwertsz, Haarlem, By Jan Gerritsz. Geldorp, Boek-verkopers, 1684. 8vo. (VIII),183,(1 blank);117,(1 blank),73,(1 blank);47,(1 blank),11,(1 blank),13,(3 blank) Vellum 16 cm 'An interesting collection of translations into Dutch of early Christian works' (Ref: STCN ppn 056885253; OiN 236 Justinus, 'integrale vert. van Apol. 1-2'; titles of Tertullianus, Minucius, Clemens Romanus & Polycarpus not in OiN; 6 copies in NCC) (Details: 5 thongs laced through the joints. Manuscript title on the back. Woodcut initials. The Letter of Clemens has a separate title page, indicating that this is the 3rd impression) (Condition: Vellum slightly soiled & scratched; upper corner of the front pastedown torn off. A few pinpoint wormholes in the uppermargin of the last 150 p., not affecting the text.§ STCN calls for 2 leaves between the preliminary pages and the beginning of the translation, and an illustration; these 2 leaves and illustration are lacking in our copy; the 2 leaves contain translated testimonia of Christ from Flavius Josephus (3x), Tacitus (2x), and the short apocryphical letter of Lentulus to the emperor Tiberius, giving a physical and personal description of Christ; the lacking illustration is a portrait of Jesus Christ; the different quality paper and the deviant typeface used in the lacking leaves, suggests that they were printed and added later) (Note: At the beginning of the preface the publisher declares that when he wanted to bring on the market once more the Dutch translation of C. Boon of the 'Apologeticum' of Tertullian & the 'Octavius' of Minucius Felix, he asked Dr. Petrus Langedult to produce a new translation of the 'Apologiae' of Justinus Martyr. Langedult also added, he tells, very extensive notes to 3/4 of his translation. He however died untimely at the age of 37, so the last quarter is without his learned notes. The translated Greek and Latin texts, the publisher goes on, show how excellent the first Christians were, in professing and defending their religion against the Jews and heathens. Tertullian and the others lived short after the Apostles, so they can be considered to be their agents. The publisher incites his readers to use the texts against all those who undermine 'our' christian religion, 'soo Joden, Heydenen, als Atheisten'. When and where the translations of Boon were published previously is hard to tell. In Worldcat and in Picarta we found no earlier copies. We only found a reference to an earlier edition of his translation of Tertullian and Minucius Felix in the 'Bibliotheca Furliana', the catalogue of the library of an eighteenth century Rotterdam citizen. There we find the listing of these 2 works translated by C. Boon, and published in 1671 in Rotterdam by Ryckhals. In the usual biographic reference works we also found nothing about this 'C. Boon'. More is known about the translator of the Greek text of the 'Apologiae' of Justinus, Langedult. He was born in 1640 in Haarlem, and established himself there as a medical doctor. He had a great knowledge of Jewish antiquities and the churchfathers, and is the author of some poetry and theological works. He died in 1677. His widow and some friends seem to have had some of his work published posthumely, e.g. this translation. This translation of Justinus Martyr with learned notes is however not recorded in the lemma about him in the 'Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek. (NNBW 5,309/10) At the end of the book we find a translation of the first 2 letters, which are traditionally ascribed to Clemens Romanus I. He was at the end of the first century AD the 2nd, 3rd or perhaps the 4th bishop of Rome. Both letters are also known as the 'epistles of Clement'. The translated letter is addressed to the chuch of Corinth. Its title records that this is already its third edition. A Dutch translation of these epistles was published earlier in 1656 by P. Casteleyn in Haarlem. At the very end we find the short and edifying letter of Polycarpus, bishop of Smyrna, who died in 156 AD., to the Corinthians, and the letter of Polycarpus to the Philippenses) (Collation: *4, A-L8, M4 (leaf M4 verso blank), A-M8; A-D8 (leaf D8 & D7 verso blank), A8,(leaf A7 verso and A8 blank) (Photographs on request)