[Paris Polyglot Bible]. Libri Judicum ac primum Josue. [Tome VII]. Paris, Antoine Vitré, 1642. One volume (of 10) large in-folio brown calf, spine ribbed and decorated (contemporary binding). Binding very damaged with major leather tears. Typography in Latin and Arabic. Heavy damp spotting on last few pages. Several wormholes. Some foxing. The only seventh volume (of 9) of this monumental Bible was intended to be an improved or enlarged edition of the Alcalá Polyglot (1514-1517), which included four languages, and the Antwerp Polyglot (1569-1572), which included five. It was followed by the London Polyglot (1654-1657), which added Persian and Ethiopian. Pope Paul V, enthroned in 1605, submitted the idea of a polyglot Bible to two successive French ambassadors to the Holy See: Cardinal Duperron (1604-1606) and François Savary de Brèves (1607-1614), himself an Orientalist scholar. Another influential scholar in Paris was won over to the project: Jacques-Auguste de Thou, both a friend of Duperron and uncle of Savary de Brèves' wife, Anne de Thou. As early as 1615, according to a letter from J.A. de Thou, Cardinal du Perron had begun preparations, which were interrupted by his death in 1617. A few years later, the Parisian lawyer Guy Michel le Jay took up the project again and, at the cost of a great deal of money and work, finally brought it to a successful conclusion.