Vatable - the Bible illlustrator: Ark, Tabernacle, Temple

Vatable assisted Robert Estienne in printing the first 'critical editions' of the Bible. First this only concerned the text of the Vulgata, which had to be improved by comparing it with other versions and if possible even manuscripts. His first Bible appeared in 1528, containing a corrected version of the Vulgata. Between 1538 and 1540 a new edition appeared with scholarly critical notes in the margin (Estienne kind of invented the system of 'sigla' to refer to manuscripts and codices etc):

Biblia. Hebræa, Chaldæa, Græca et Latina nomina... restituta, cum Latina interpretatione
Robert Estienne, Paris (ex officina Roberti Stephani typographi regii), 1540 [1538-1540], 4 vols.

The 1546 edition strongly influenced the authorized Vulgata Edition of the Popes Sixtus/Clementinus. François Vatable must have had something to do with it, because on the title page his name is mentioned as the supplier of ... images of the Tabernacle and the Temple of Solomon. If one leafs through the book, one also notices an image of Noah's Ark. Below the title page and the images drawn up by (or based on instructions given by) François Vatable. No fantasy, but an attempt to use the information contained in the Bible to 'reconstruct' the supposed original. References in the image (a, b...) refer to explanations below/next to the picture.  Look at this page from Genesis and admire Noah's Ark, carefully drawn, meticulously rendered in accordance with the biblical instructions, indeed: a floating wooden box. If one built it this way and launched it, it would immediately capsize.

Below: the Tabernacle and Temple.

Interested ? On this page the entire collection with context and 'legenda'. 
 Very influential drawings/designs/pictures by the way, Iconic.

The Tabernacle

The Temple of Solomon