The scarce first edition in English of the earliest account of the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Koine Greek, which is notable also for containing the first mention of the Library of Alexandria.

The letter, which most today consider pseudoepigraphical, is said to have been written by the Ptolemaic courtier Aristeas of Marmora to his brother Philocrates in the third to early second century BC. It relates how King Ptolemy II Philadelphus was urged by his librarian Demetrius Phalereus to acquire a copy of the Hebrew Laws, 'the Booke of Bookes', for his library in Alexandria, which is reported here to have held '1800000. Volumes, Printing not then risen in our Hemispheare' (The Epistle). The account goes on to relate how Ptolemy encouraged the translation of the Laws into Greek, resulting in the translation known to posterity as the 'Septuagint' because it was accomplished in seventy-two days by seventy-two Hebrew scholars, six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

First edition; 8vo (15.5 x 10 cm); state with title-page line 9 ending 'vnto', woodcut initials and headpieces, occasional pen annotations to margins, inscriptions in pen to front and rear blank ff, library ink stamp to front blank f. recto, later endpapers with bookplate to front free endpaper recto adn tipped-in description to front pastedown, persistent worm track to upper fore-edge margin leading to occasional loss to printed marginalia, title torn at foot with slight loss to imprint carefully repaired in manuscript facsimile, text-block slightly softened; modern gilt-panelled sprinkled calf by Bayntun (Riviere), contrasting morocco lettering-pieces to spine; [16], 80, 89-184, 189-219, [1]pp.

ESTC S122439; STC 750.5.