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Chatelain, (R. J.).
Mémoire sur les chevaux Arabes. Projet tendant à augmenter et à améliorer les chevaux en France. - Notes sur les différentes races qui doivent être préférees à ce sujet. - Réflexions sur l'adminstration des Haras, leur utilité. - Instruction pour les propriétaires qui sont des élèves. - Connoissance nécessaire pour faire un bon choix d'étalons et de chevaux de guerre. - Beautés et défectuosités. - Tableaux, recettes, dépenses et réformes. Paris, Madame Huzard (née Vallat la Chapelle), 1816.
8vo. 158 pp. With frontispiece of a 'Cheval Arabe' after C. Vernet. Contemp. red half morocco with giltstamped spine and covers. Interesting work on the Arabian breed of horses, especially the military horses in France. - A fine copy. Boyd 26. Mennessier de la Lance I, 263. OCLC 4337831.
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[Chmielenski, Constant; Pseud.:] Constant de Tours.
Le Train d'Orient et les voyages par terre et par mer de Paris a Constantinople. Paris, Societé Francaise d'éditions d'art, [1903].
Large 4to. 272 pp. Publisher's original illustrated red cloth, stamped in gold and black. All edges gilt. Second edition of this popular, profusely illustrated guide through the countries and places visited by the Orient Express, which took up service in 1883. The elaborate art nouveau binding recalls that of the first edition, published by Émile Gaillard in 1894. - Some browning throughout, but well-preserved. OCLC 457665773.
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Chronographus, Philo.
Arca Temporum Mundi Reserata, Oder: Der Welt eröffnete Zeit- und Geschicht-Beschreibung. Begreiffend: Perspeculatum [...]. Augsburg, Jakob Koppmayer for Jakob Enderlin, 1693.
Folio (305 x 190 mm). 2 parts in 1 volume. (4), 31, (1), 64 pp. With 12 (instead of 16) plates containing 24 copper engravings. Modern boards. Fascinating, little-received chronographical study focusing on the history of the Eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor, then under Ottoman rule. The anonymous late 17th-century German author hides behind the name of "Philo Chronographus" and is evidently identical with the "Philo Cosmographus" who produced the similarly themed geographical work, "Trinum Marinum", which is announced on the title page and was often issued together with this, though produced by a different publisher and catalogued separately. The first part of the work contains a general introduction which relates the 24 hours of the day to the time from Creation to the year 1800 (which is conceived of as the end of the world, leaving another mere 107 years of history to come!). The second part features a chronicle of the "Rule of the Ottoman Porte", from Sultan Osman to Suleyman II. - Numerous pages of plates (each page containing two copper engravings) depict costumes, animals and plants, maps and views of towns (Sultan Osman, the Ottoman Residence and a view of Constantinople, dolphins and cranes, Turkish ladies in their various garments, a cypress and a mastix tree, etc.). - The number of plates, and indeed even the arrangement of engravings on a single page, varies from copy to copy, but this wants 4 plates as compared to the table of plates. Well-preserved. VD 17, 12:645730N. Weller, Pseud. 439.
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Churi, Joseph H.
Sea Nile, the Desert, and Nigritia. Travels in Company with Captain Peel, R.N. 1851-1852. [...] With Thirteen Arabic Songs, as Sung by the Egyptian Sailors on the Nile. London, published by the author, 1853.
Large 8vo. XII, 331, (1) pp. With wood-engraved frontispiece of the Homra tree. Original publisher's brown boards with title in gilt to spine. First edition. - The Lebanese Maronite Churi trained at the Congregation of Propaganda in Rome from 1842 to 1849. He later left Rome and made his way to London, where he gave lessons in Arabic, Latin, Italian, and Hebrew. Captain W. Peel was amongst his pupils and persuaded him to accompany him on a tour of the Middle East between October 1850 and February 1851. The present work is an account of a second journey the pair undertook to Egypt and the Sudan between August 1851 and February 1852. - Some wear to spine and boards. Mild occasional foxing, otherwise in very good condition. Nice original, unblemished yellow endpapers. Rare. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 135 (erroneously s. v. "Chusi"). OCLC 4709982. Not in Gay.
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Collingwood, William, R.I.N. surveyor (fl. 1840s-1860s).
Journal of a voyage from London to Bombay. On board the "Oriental", 1846.
8vo. English ms. in blue ink on paper. 69 pp., interleaved with pink blotting paper. With several coloured ink sketches. Bound in red morocco with inscribed cover "Journal of the proceedings on board the ship Oriental from London to Bombay". Marbled endpapers, inscribed "W. Collingwood. Journal Book". A passage journal kept aboard the ship "Oriental" from London around Africa to Bombay between 6 January and 30 May 1846, written in a neat and clear hand with occasional coloured ink sketches. The varied content includes weather observations, poetry, and day-to-day commentary: "March 31st 1846 Tuesday: A large shoal of porpoises playing about the bows the mate went out on the dolphin striker to harpoon one but was unsuccessful [...]", "May 11th 1846 Monday: This morning we sighted Coëtivy, it is a low rocky shore sprinkled with Cocoa nut trees etc., before 12 it was out of sight [...]" (includes a panoramic sketch of the coastline). - Lieutenant William Collingwood, a distant cousin of the Admiral, was an R.I.N. surveyor who did much valuable work in Iraq, including the large-scale, though surreptitious, mapping of Baghdad in 1855. During this same expedition, Collingwood also surveyed the Shatt-ul-Arab, the city of Bussorah (also by stealth) and much of the country between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and he was undoubtedly one of the most gifted and productive R.I.N. surveyors of his day. - Binding slightly rubbed at extremeties; in good condition altogether.
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Cordeiro, Luciano.
Batalhas da India. Como se perdeu Ormuz. Processo inedito do seculo XVII. Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional, 1896.
8vo. XV, (1), 297, (1) pp. Original printed wrappers. First edition. Classic, minute account by Luciano Cordeiro (1844-1900) of the events that led to the fall of Hormuz to the Anglo-Persian forces in 1622. Based on contemporary documents, many of which are reproduced here. - Slight edge chipping; evenly browned throughout as common. A good copy. Wilson 48. OCLC 27860289.
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Cosmographus, Philo.
Trinum Marinum: oder: Die an einander hangende Drey Meer Pontus Euxinus, Propontis, cum Archipelago: oder: Das Schwartze, Weisse, und Egeische Meer. Augsburg, Anton Nepperschmid for Jakob Enderlin, 1693.
Folio (305 x 190 mm). (2), 61, (1) pp. Title page printed in red and black. With 11 (instead of 18?) plates containing 22 copper engravings. Modern boards. Fascinating, little-received geographical study focusing on the Eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor, then under Ottoman rule. The anonymous late 17th-century German author hides behind the name of "Philo Cosmographus" and is evidently identical with the "Philo Chronographus" who produced the similarly themed chronographical work, "Arca Temporum", which was often issued together with this, though produced by a different publisher and catalogued separately. The present work features an overview of the geography of the Ottoman Empire, including the Aegean, the Sea of Marmara, and the Black Sea region - the "three seas" to which the title refers. Numerous pages of plates (each page containing two copper engravings) depict maps and views as well as animals (a hyena and sheep, Iraklion and Chania, Nauplia, Koroni, Rhodes, Thessaloniki, Belgrade, Izmir, etc.). - The number of plates, and indeed even the arrangement of engravings on a single page, varies from copy to copy, but this wants 8 plates as compared to the table of plates provided in "Arca Temporum". Occasional inkstains, but well-preserved. VD 17, 7:688727L; 3:605737C. Weller, Pseud. 439.
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Creighton, R.
A New Historical Map of Palestine, With Part of Egypt & Arabia. Ancient & Modern Geography of those Countries with the Routes of Several Celebrated Travellers. London, William Colling Hobson, 1833.
Large hand-coloured folding engraved map (ca. 103 x 82 cm). Scale ca. 1:1,000,000. In contemporary red morocco slipcase. Rare 1833 edition of a historical map of Palestine, with a part of Egypt and Arabia. This map is of particular interest for showing the principal roads and travel routes through the desert, with the old Roman road and the route of the Hajj, as well as the route taken by Eyles Irwin in 1777. Occasional browning; slipcase rubbed and bumped, but well preserved on the whole. Cf. Röhricht (Palästina) 633 (London, 1831). Laor, Maps of the Holy Land (1839 edition). Not in Al Ankary or Al-Qasimi.
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Creswell, Sir Keppel Archibald Cameron.
Masagid Misr (The Mosques of Egypt from 21 H. [A.D. 641) to 1365 H. [A.D. 1946]). Giza, Ordnance Survey, 1948.
Royal folio. 2 vols. V, 76 pp. III, 148 pp. Arabic text printed in red and black. With 2 chromolithogr. frontispieces, 2 chromolithogr. title pages, 243 phototype plates (27 in colour), 2 folding maps, folding table, and numerous text illustrations. Original blind- and giltstamped green cloth. First, original Arabic edition; much rarer than the English edition, which appeared a year later. "The finest piece of book production achieved in Egypt" (Creswell). A history of Islamic architecture in Egypt, containing several beautiful views of the principal mosques, with plans and notes. Both volumes include the double page with the preface by the Minister for Religious Foundations as well as Creswell's introduction (dated 1954), which supplanted the original pages 1-2 (probably a dedication to King Farouk). An unusually good, clean copy from the library of Tarek Wahby (his bookplate on the flyleaf).
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[Crnka, Fran / Alfonso de Ulloa?].
Historia di Zighet, ispugnata da Suliman, re de' turchi, l'anno MDLXVI. Nuovamente mandata in luce. Venice, Bolognino Zaltieri, 1570.
4to. 24, (2) pp. With woodcut printer's device to t. p. 18th century marbled wrappers. Rare second Italian edition (published a year after the almost unobtainable first Turin printing) of this historically important account of the events of the Battle of Szigetvár, fought between the Turkish and the Habsburgian forces. The final page treats the number of Turkish soldiers killed in the battle. - On 8 September 1566, after a month-long siege, the Ottoman army captured the fortress of Szigetvár and beheaded the defender, Miklós Zrínyi; more than 20,000 soldiers died. Shortly before the decisive battle, Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, who personally led the campaign, died of old age after a reign of 46 years - the longest in Ottoman history. In spite of the Turkish victory, the death of their leader, the heavy losses suffered during the siege, and an early winter caused the Ottoman army to withdraw to Istanbul. Only in 1689 did the Hungarians re-capture the city. - The first edition ("Historia Sigheti") was published in Latin by Caspar Stainhofer in Vienna in 1568. It was purportedly a translation from the Croat language, prepared by Samuel Budina (cf. Apponyi 422). The supposed author, Fran Crnka (Ferenc Czerno), was Zrínyi's surviving chamberlain. According to Göllner, the actual author (though more likely, the editor) may have been Alfonso de Ulloa (d. 1580), who also published "Commentari della Guerra" and "Historie di Europa", both appearing at Zaltieri's press in the same year as the present work. - Extremely rare; a single copy at auctions internationally since 1950. Edit 16, CNCE 13812. Apponyi 439. Göllner 1270. BM-STC Italian 652. Hammer 761. Szabó 603. Ballagi 718. Hubay 277. OCLC 64419121. Not in Adams.
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Cureton, William.
Ancient Syriac documents relative to the earliest establishment of Christianity in Edessa and the neighbouring countries from the year after our Lord's ascension to the beginning of the fourth century. London, Williams and Norgate, 1864.
Folio (232 x 295 mm). (2), XIV, 196, 112 pp. Contemporary blindstamped cloth with giltstamped title to spine. First edition. - In 1837, Cureton (1808-64), assistant keeper of manuscripts in the British Museum and the only oriental scholar in the department, was commissioned to prepare a catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts, the first part of which appeared in 1846. "But a new study had already engaged Cureton's attention. During his official occupation at the British Museum immense additions had been made to the collection of Syriac manuscripts. When he entered the department these numbered about eighty; but the accession of numerous manuscripts of the highest importance from the Nitrian monasteries, which were purchased and brought over partly by the mediation of Dr. Tattam in 1841 and 1843, raised the total to nearly six hundred. Cureton, who knew nothing of Syriac when he came to the department, set himself zealously to work to conquer the not very serious difficulties of the language, and to set in order and classify the new acquisitions from the Nitrian valley. His labours while drawing up an outline catalogue were amply rewarded by the discovery of many manuscripts of the highest interest" (DNB). The present work was published, after his death following a railway accident, by William Wright (1830-89). - Occasional slight foxing; on the whole an excellent, unusually wide-margined copy. From the library of the Ducs de Luynes at the Château de Dampierre: their bookplate reproducing the arms of Charles Marie d'Albert de Luynes (1783-1839), 7th Duc de Luynes, on pastedown. DNB XII, 326. OCLC 4774167. Cf. Fück 190.
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Curione, Celio Augustino.
Sarracenicae historiae libri III. In quibus Sarracenorum, Turcaru[m], Aegypti Sultanorum, [...] origines & incrementa, septingentorumq[ue] annorum res ab illis gestae, brevissimè explicantur. Basel, Johannes Oporinus, (August 1567).
Folio. 163, (19) pp., final blank f. With woodcut printer's device to title-page. - (Bound with) II: Hoffmeister, Johann. In XII priora capita actuum apostolicorum commentaria [...]. Cologne, Arnold Birckmanns heirs, 1567. (6) pp., 1 blank f., 225, (1) pp. With woodcut printer's device to title-page. Contemporary limp vellum with ms. spine title. Traces of ties. First edition of the history of the Saracens and Turks, dedicated to Emperor Maximilian II. The humanist C. A. Curio (1538-1567) thinks it likely that the Turks are descended from the Huns and shows skepticism toward theories that they might be descended from the Twelve Tribes of Israel, or, as Pliny had surmised, from the Tartars. Curio describes the Saracens as a people wrought by internal strife, often defeated and fragmented by the Arabs. - Bound within the same volume is a rare commentary on the first 12 chapters of the Acts of the Apostles by the Augustinian and theologian J. Hoffmeister (c. 1509-47). - Binding slightly loosened; some reinforcements to gutters; second word rather browned in places with occasional waterstains. A good copy of an important, early work on the Turkish people. I: VD 16 C, 6410 (D 2655). Göllner 1211. Adams C 3078. BM-STC German 232. Schottenloher 51906. Kutter A14, 1. - II: VD 16. H 4266. Not in Adams or BM-STC German.
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Danvers, Frederick Charles.
The Portuguese in India. Being a history of the rise and decline of their eastern empire. London, W. H. Allen & Co., 1894.
2 vols. 8vo. LIII, (1), 572 pp. XV, (1), 579, (1) pp. With 2 frontispieces and numerous folding maps and views; a large folding map inserted into a pocket at the back of vol. 2. Publisher's original armorial gilt blue cloth. First edition. - Modern, encompassing history of Portuguese India, including an extensive account of the campaigns and operations of Afonso de Albuquerque in the Arabian Gulf, which he entered as the first European. "In 1506 Albuquerque was despatched from Lisbon on an expedition, intended to consolidate Portuguese supremacy in the Indian Ocean. His instructions were to monopolize trade with East India for portugal, and to exclude both Venetians and Saracens from Indian waters [...] Attacks were made on the Arab ports at Malindi, Hoja, Lamu and Brava, before continuing to Socotra [...] Sailing from Socotra with six ships, Albuquerque coasted the Arabian peninsula, sacked Muscat and Sohar, and then launched an attack on Hormuz during the months of September and October 1507. In spite of the overwhelming forces assembled against him by the island's twelve-year-old ruler, Albuquerque mounted a successful siege, with the result that the ruler become a vassal of the Portuguese crown" (Howgego I, 19ff.). - Signed "A. J. Whittle" on half-titles (but struck out in vol. 1). Slight rubbing to extremeties, fine altogether.
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(Day, A. / Shearme, F. N. [eds.]).
Persian Gulf Pilot. Comprising the Persian Gulf and its approaches, from Ras al Hadd, in the South-West, to Cape Monze, in the East. Tenth edition. All bearings are true. London, Hydrographic Department, Admiralty / Lowe & Brydone, 1955.
8vo. (2), L, 312, (2) pp. With several maps and plates. Original cloth. "The Persian Gulf Pilot contains sailing directions for the Persian gulf and the approaches thereto, from Ras al Hadd, in the south-west, to Cape Monze, in the East". - Also includes copious information on politics, population, languages, trade, currencies, pearl fishery, meteorological information (climate, winds, weather, temperature, humidity), as well as currents, tides, communications and other miscellaneous information. - Binding rubbed and faded. Only two copies in auction records of the past decades (Peter Hopkirk's copy fetching £1,300 at Sotheby's, Oct 14, 1998, lot 1043). Hydrographic Office Publication 158. OCLC 709448977. Cf. Wilson 171.
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(Day, A. / Shearme, F. N. [eds.]).
Persian Gulf Pilot. Comprising the Persian Gulf and its approaches, from Ras al Hadd, in the South-West, to Cape Monze, in the East. Tenth edition. London, Hydrographic Department, Admiralty / Lowe & Brydone, 1955.
8vo. (2), L, 312, (2) pp. With several maps and plates. Original cloth. "The Persian Gulf Pilot contains sailing directions for the Persian gulf and the approaches thereto, from Ras al Hadd, in the south-west, to Cape Monze, in the East". - Also includes copious information on politics, population, languages, trade, currencies, pearl fishery, meteorological information (climate, winds, weather, temperature, humidity), as well as currents, tides, communications and other miscellaneous information. - Binding slightly rubbed. Only two copies in auction records of the past decades (Peter Hopkirk's copy fetching £1,300 at Sotheby's, Oct 14, 1998, lot 1043). Hydrographic Office Publication 158. OCLC 709448977. Cf. Wilson 171.
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Dickson, H. R. P.
The Arab of the Desert. A Glimpse into Badawin Life in Kuwait and Sau'di Arabia. London, Allen & Unwin, 1951.
Original publisher's red cloth. Second edition of this classic work. With frontispiece portrait of HH Sheikh Sir Ahmad al Jabir al Sabah, contemporary Ruler of Kuwait. - In very good condition. OCLC 6947893. Cf. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 840 (1st ed.).
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Dickson, Violet.
Forty Years in Kuwait. London, Allen & Unwin, 1971.
With original dustjacket in excellent condition. First edition, first printing. Violet was the wife of H. R. P. Dickson, author of 'The Arab of the Desert' and 'Kuwait and her Neighbours'.
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Dieu, Lodewijk de (ed.) / Javier, Jerónimo, SJ.
[Dastan-i Masi]. Historia Christi Persice conscripta, simulque multis modis contaminata. Leiden, Elsevier, 1639.
4to. (24), 636, (8) pp. - (With:) [Dastan-i San Bidru]. Historia S. Petri Persice conscripta [...], Latine reddita [...] a L. de Dieu. Ibid., 1639. (8), 144 pp. - (And:) L. de Dieu. [`Ansarha-yi zaban-i Farsi]. Rudimenta linguae Persicae. Ibid., 1639. (8), 95, (1) pp. All titles printed in red and black. Contemporary brown full calf with gilt spine. First edition of the first Persian grammar ever printed, with two Persian texts edited for the first time from manuscripts. "De Dieu's most striking performance [...] De Dieu is well aware that he is the first to publish a grammar of Persian. [...] In the preface De Dieu relates how he studied Persian with the help of the Constantinople Polyglot borrowed from Gomarus, and mentions Elichmann as the supplier of the manuscript with the 'Historia Christi', which was owned by Golius. The latter also supplied a ms. dictionary of Persian. In the annotations to the 'Historia S. Petri' the original ms. is described: it contained two more Persian texts, and was once bought by the Rotterdam physician Johannes Romanus at Agra in 1626. The volume then passed into the hands of Elichmann, who lent it to the editor. The two chapters from Genesis are taken from a complete translation in Arabic characters [by Rabbi Jacob Tawus] at Istanbul in 1546" (Smitskamp). These are lives of Christ and St Peter, originally written in Portuguese by the Jesuit priest Jerome Xavier (1549-1617) and then translated into Persian at the command of the Mughal emperor Akbar. It was at the Elseviers' request that De Dieu composed, as an addition, the elementary grammar. The grammars of Ignazio di Gesù (Rome 1661) and of Labrosse (Amsterdam 1684) were largely based on his work. Willems notes that Raimondi, as early as 1614, produced a grammar in Rome for the use of missionaries which remained virtually unknown in the west, but this existed only in manuscript (cf. Smitskamp). - Occasional slight brownstaining, but a good, tight copy from the library of the Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013). Smitskamp, PO 310. Willems 490 & 477. Copinger 5255 & 1314. De Backer/S. VIII, 1339, 8 & 9. Rahir 473. Berghman 674. Schwab II, 727. OCLC 6445068, 6445039, 82252380.
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Dieu, Ludovicus de (editor).
Gêlyânâ dè Yuhannân quddîsâ id est, Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis, ex manuscripto exemplari è bibliotheca ... Josephi Scaligeri ... edita charactere Syro, & Ebraeo, cum versione latina, & notis [...]. Leiden, Bonaventura and Abraham Elzevier, 1627.
4to (20.5 x 15.5 cm). [20], 211, [1] pp. With the title in red and black in an ornamental, architectural woodcut frame with a palm tree at the head, and woodcut palm tree device above the colophon (both acquired from Erpenius), a decorated woodcut initial, a woodcut factotum and factotums and decorative bands built up from cast fleurons. Set in serto Syriac, meruba Hebrew, Greek and roman types, with incidental estrangela Syriac and italic. Contemporary or near contemporary vellum, sewn on 4 velum tapes laced through the joints, with a hollow back, red edges. The first edition of any early text of the Book of Revelations in the ancient Syriac language, a book that had been lacking in the manuscripts followed by the earlier Syriac New Testaments. It is also the first book the Elzeviers printed with Syriac or any other "oriental" type, their earlier forays into printing with non-Latin types having been limited to Greek and Hebrew. The main text is set in two columns, with the Syriac text set in Syriac type on the outside and the Syriac text set in Hebrew type on the inside, an aid to scholars less familiar with the Syriac script. Two columns in smaller type at the foot provide the original Greek text and a literal Latin translation of the Syriac. The whole is well printed and laid out, showing why the Elzeviers were quickly gaining a reputation as the leading scholarly printers and publishers. Thomas Erpenius made Leiden University the leading centre for the study of oriental languages when appointed professor of oriental languages in 1613. He set up his own printing office, acquiring or commissioning types for Arabic, Syriac, Samaritan and Ethiopic, and inaugurating it with his edition of Lockman's fables in Arabic (1615). His death from the plague at age forty cut his work short in 1624. Ludovicus de Dieu (1590-1642), Regent of the Walloon College associated with the University, had studied under Erpenius and his successor in Arabic studies Jacob Golius, but for Syriac he became Erpenius's spiritual successor. The present book was nearly his first publication. Although Syriac New Testaments had been published earlier, no source had been found for the Syriac text of the Book of Revelation, which was lacking in the standard "Peshitta" Bible, a Syriac Old and New Testament whose text was probably established in the 4th century. In his 1599 Polyglot, Elias Hutter therefore filled the gap with his own new translation, but De Dieu published the present text based on a manuscript from the library of the great orientalist Joseph Scaliger, apparently a copy made in Rome ca. 1580 of an ancient manuscript of the Syriac text established by the Persian Philoxenus, Bishop of Mabbug, in Mesopotamia in 508 and corrected by the Palestinian monk Thomas of Harkel near Alexandria in 616. For that reason, Darlow & Moule, Smitskamp and others call the present book the "editio princeps". Erpenius's widow briefly continued her husband's printing office, completing the Syriac psalter that he had begun, but it was published jointly by the Elzeviers and Johannes Maire, and on 9 October 1625 the Elzeviers bought her printing office and took over most of its materials and workmen. At the same time they began to acquire and commission new printing materials, greatly expanding the printing office they had added to their publishing house in 1617. This made the period 1625 to 1640 the press's golden age. Erpenius had commissioned the woodcut of the present title-page for his Arabic Historia Josephi in 1517 and most of the types and fleurons came from him as well. Plantin commissioned the serto and estrangela Syriac types from Robert Granjon for volume 5 (1571) of his Polyglot Bible (Erpenius added and revised a few characters in the serto) and Daniel Bomberg commissioned the Hebrew type for his press in Venice, where he used it in 1517. The lovely arabesque initial V with a face in the centre, however, belongs to a series cut exclusively for the Elzeviers and used here nearly for the first time. The book also shows them beginning to supplement their 16th-century French types (Garamont romans and Granjon italics) with 17th-century types cut in the Dutch Republic. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, the language of the Christian Church and Christian scholars in the first centuries of the Christian era, and a lingua franca among the diverse groups living in the Middle East at that time. But it relates stories that would have first been told (and in some cases probably also written down) in Aramaic, the vernacular language of Palestine in Jesus's time. It also presents Jesus's words in Greek translation, while he would have spoken them in Aramaic. While no early New Testament survives in Palestinian Aramaic, the Greek was translated into Syriac, probably already in the second century, and surviving manuscripts may date back to the fifth century. Syriac, another dialect of Aramaic, served as the vernacular language of much of the Middle East (it has nothing to do with today's Syria, where the native language is Arabic). The Syriac text therefore provides valuable clues to the Aramaic sources of the New Testament. The Peshitta Bible remains the standard text among some Christian groups. Debates continue as to how much of the "original" Aramaic can be found in the surviving Syriac versions. - The watermark in the endpapers (a simple bend) does not closely match any found in the literature, but the nearest is Heawood 129, used in Amsterdam in 1646. In fine condition, with only an occasional minor spot and at the edge of the last few leaves some tiny (0.2 mm!) worm holes, and with large margins (the leaves are a couple millimetres taller than those noted by Berghman and Rahir). The binding is very slightly rubbed but still very good. A fine copy of an important work of biblical scholarship and a showpiece of the Elzevier's press at the beginning of its golden age. Berghman, Cat. Raisonné 48; Copinger 1310; Darlow & Moule 8962; Rahir 230; Smitskamp, Phil. orientalia 303; STCN (9 copies); Willems 269; www.bibliasacra.nl, 1627.Rev.poly.BE.a.; for the types: J.F. Coakley, Typography of Syriac W3B & S3.
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(Dominicus Germanus de Silesia, OFM).
Antitheses fidei, ventilabuntur in conventu S. Petri Montis Aurei fratrum Minorum S.P. Francisci reformat[orum]. Rome, Congreg. de Propaganda Fide, 1638.
4to (227 x 163 mm). 1 bl. f., 66 pp. (counted as 43; numerous errors in pagination; some parts included in two variants). With woodcut title vignette. Contemporary limp vellum with ms. title to spine. Very rare polemical work, printed throughout in Arabic and Latin, that aims to compare and contrast Christian and Muslim scripture and doctrines. Dedicated to Cardinal Barberini. The editor Dominicus (1585-1670) taught Arabic at the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide since 1636 and collaborated on their Bible project. His magnum opus, one of the first literal Quran translations, was not rediscovered and published until 1883. In 1636 he published an Arabic grammar (the first publication of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide press to use Arabic type); in 1639 he would produce a dictionary of vernacular Arabic. Four years in the Middle East had convinced him that a missionary must before everything else know the vernacular language (cf. Fück, p. 78). The present work was considered lost quite recently by Antonio García Masegosa in his study "Germán de Silesia, Interpretatio Alcorani Litteralis, Parte I: La traducción latina" (Madrid, 2009): "Por la misma época, publicó un tratado religioso en árabe y en latín titulado Antitheses fidei, que se encuentra perdido en la actualidad, o que al menos no ha podido ser localizado para este trabajo" (p. 14). - Marked brownstaining throughout with waterstain to upper corner. Still an appealing copy. Schnurrer 248. Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an IV, 237. OCLC 491545005, 54509800.
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Driesch, Gerard Cornelius van den.
Historische Nachricht von der Röm. Kayserl. Groß-Botschafft nach Constantinopel [...]. Nuremberg, Peter Conrad Monath, 1723.
4to. (18), 494, (38) pp. With engr. frontispiece and 12 (instead of 13) engr. plates (2 folding). Contemp. calf with giltstamped spine label. Edges sprinkled in red. First authorized German edition. Driesch, a native of Cologne, was secretary to Damian Hugo von Pyrmont, ambassador of Charles VI to the Sublime Porte, in which capacity he went to Constantinople in 1719. "Contains unprejudiced accounts of the oriental customs" (cf. Griep/L.). Seven of the plates show portraits, the others show the entrance of the delegation, the audience, a Turkish bath, etc. - Complete save for the plan of Constantinople. Occasional slight browning and waterstaining; binding professionally restored. From the library of the Budapest numismatist and collector Béla Procopius (1868-1945), sometime Hungarian ambassador to Athens, with his stamp on the title page. Atabey 362. Weber II, 484. Lipperheide Lb 29. Hiler 248. Griep/L. 364. Not in Blackmer.
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Du Fouilloux, Jacques.
La venerie [...]. De nouveau reveue, et augmentée, outre les precedentes impressions. Paris, la Boutique de l'Angelier chez Clause Cramoisy, 1624.
4to (226 x 164 mm). 2 parts in one volume. (4), 124, (8) pp. Title printed in red and black with woodcut vignette, 57 woodcut illustrations, 3 full-page, woodcut music, head- and tailpieces, and initials. 19th-c. black morocco by Cuyls, covers and spine blind-tooled with lion motif, gilt turn-ins, red morocco doublures with gilt dentelle borders and gilt monogram "AR" on doublure. "Bona fide sine fraude" book label on red silk flyleaf. All edges red. A sumptuously bound copy of this important illustrated classic on falconry. From the collection of the Princes of Oettingen-Wallerstein, a still thriving Southern German noble family, with their inkstamp on the title. First published in 1561, this work remained one of the most popular of its kind until the 18th century; it contains a wealth of interesting observations on the habits of animals since confirmed by naturalists. The woodcuts show a hunting party resting, a hunter being paid for shooting a deer, several kinds of antlers, the training and care of hounds, various tools such as spades, shovels, hoes, etc.; a shepherdess with her flock of sheep, and a three-masted ship with hunters and hounds on bord. Numerous hunting tunes are added as woodcut music in the text. The fine full-page woodcut on the reverse of the title page shows the author presenting his work to King Charles IX. - Outer margin of title reinforced on verso (no loss to image); scattered light spotting, lightly browned. Occasional remarginings. Extremities lightly rubbed. A handsome, well-preserved copy from the library of Amédée Rigaud (1819-1874). Souhart 153. Thiébaud, p. 305. Brunet II, 1357. Catalogue Rigaud (1874), no. 157 (this copy). Cf. Schwerdt 153. Jeanson 1216.
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Dubois, Jean.
L'Arabe et son cheval et autres histoires de cheval. Antwerp, Louis Opdebeek, [c. 1925].
4to. 36 pp., illustrated throughout. Publisher's giltstamped and illustrated red boards. Rare, bibliographically unrecorded collection of horse stories, including one about the Arab and his horse. - Removed from the library of the "Société Protectrice des Animaux", Gand, with their stamps on cover and title.
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[Egypt].
Permit for a donkey to enter the Hejaz region. [Cairo, late nineteenth century].
195 x 137 mm. Lithographed document in Arabic with an image of a donkey. Validated with two official blue ink stamps. Very rare Egyptian issued permit for a donkey to enter the holy sites of Mecca and Medina. - With ms. notes in Arabic.
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Eichhorn, Johann Gottfried.
Geschichte des ostindischen Handels vor Mohammed. Gotha, Carl Wilhelm Ettinger, 1775.
8vo. X, 82 pp. Wrappers. First edition of this exceptionally rare study in historical economics, exploring the ancient trade routes to East India and Arabia in pre-Muhammadian times, citing many Greek sources. The linguist J. G. Eichhorn (1752-1827) was professor of oriental languages at Göttingen, where he also taught political history and literary history. - A very clean, well-preserved copy: contemporary note of acquisition on title page; two typographical errors noted on the errata page have been corrected by the owner. Kress 7102. Roscher 913. ADB V, 731. OCLC 65352288.
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Eichhorn, Johann Gottfried / Schultens, Albert (eds.).
Monumenta antiquissimae historiae Arabum. Post Albertum Schultensium collegit ediditque cum latina versione et animadversionibus. Gotha, (Fickelscherr for) Karl Wilhelm Ettinger, 1775.
8vo. (8), 216 pp. With 13 genealogical tables printed on 12 folding plates. Contemporary marbled boards. Rare first edition of this corpus of sources on ancient Arabic history. With extensive passages in Arabic, largely presenting excerpts from the historical works of Ibn Qutaybah, the renowned Islamic scholar of Persian origin (cf. GAL I, 120ff.). He served as a judge during the Abbasid Caliphate, but was best known for his contributions to Arabic literature. - Binding rubbed and bumped at extremeties. Some brownstaining throughout (more pronounced in title page). From the collection of the Lower Saxon educator and rector Friedrich Hülsemann (1771-1835) with his ownership to front pastedown (dated 31 July 1799); later in the library of the Badenian rabbi Levi Bodenheimer (1807-67; his ownership on flyleaf; Hebrew pencil note on rear pastedown). Last in the collection of the German zoologists Barbara and Ragnar Kinzelbach (their bookplate). Macro 888 ("8 volumes" in error for "8vo"). Schnurrer 160f. Fück I, 768. NYPL Arabia Coll. 23. Aboussouan 304 & 833. Cf. NDB IV, 377. Not in Smitskamp.
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(El Khatib, Fathalla et al.).
British Imperialism in Southern Arabia. New York, Arab Information Center, November 1958.
8vo. (4), 86 pp. With 3 folding maps. Original printed wrappers. Informational publication issued by the New York Arab Information Center - The Research Section to argue the Arab cause among U.N. delegates, with contributions by Fathalla El Khatib, Khalid I. Babaa, Ism Kabbani and Omar Halig. Articles include "British Penetration and Imperialism in Yemen", "British Aggression Against the Imamate of Oman", and the "Buraimi Dispute". - Old ownership "M. Cain" to front cover; Arvada I.R.C. stamps. Information Papers Number 6.
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Erpenius, Thomas.
Grammatica arabica cum fabulis Lokmani etc. Accedunt excerpta anthologiae veterum arabiae poetoetarum quae inscribitur Hamasa Abi Temmam et notis illustrata ab Alberto Schultens praefatio. Editio secunda. Leiden, apud Samuel et Joannes Luchtmans, 1767.
Small 4to. (14), CXXXII, 603, (69) pp. With engraved vignette and the engraved coat of arms of Wilhelm Count Bentink. Contemporary half calf with giltstamped spine label. Erpenius's famous grammar, a landmark in Arabic studies until the early 19th century. This edition is a line-for-line reprint of the 1748 edition (which in turn repeated the one edited by Golius in 1656), with only the indexes expanded. It also contains a collection of pre-Islamic folk songs, the "Hamasah" of Abu Tammam, added by the editor Schultens, as well as an extensive preface discussing the relationship between Hebrew and Arabic. Erpenius (1584-1624), professor of oriental languages at Leiden, first published his "Grammatica Arabica" in 1613, having completed it four years earlier while staying in Paris with Casaubon. He is regarded as "one of the men whom the study of oriental languages owes its resurrection [...] He set up his own printing shop with Hebrew, Arabic, Syrian, Ethiopian, and Turkish type" (cf. ADB). Until well into the 19th century his works, published in numerous editions, remained the foundation of Arabic language teaching in the west. The editor of this edition, Albert Schultens (1686-1750), also served as professor of Oriental Languages at Leiden (1732-1750). During his lifetime he was the principal teacher of Arabic in Europe, and followed Erpenius's tradition in restoring the reputation of Arabic studies, vindicating the importance of the comparative study of the Semitic languages against those who regarded Hebrew as a sacred language beyond the realm of comparative philology. - Spine slightly rubbed, minor foxing to title page, otherwise in very good condition. Schnurrer 106. Smitskamp, BO 75. Breugelmans, Fac et spera (2003) 1656:1. F. De Nave, Philologia Arabica (1986) 72.
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Makin, Jirjis ibn al-'Amid (Georgius Elmacinus) / Erpenius, Thomas (transl.).
Historia saracenica, qua res gestae muslimorum Inde a Muhammede Arabe. Leiden, Johannes Maire & Elzevier, 1625.
4to. (8), 372, 75, (1) pp. With woodcut title vignette. Contemporary vellum. Quarto edition of Elmacinus's great chronicle, "Tarih al-muslimin" ("Kitab al-magmu` al-mu-barak"), translated by Erpenius. This "History of the Saracenes" is actually a history of Islam from the days of the Prophet up to the year 1118. Erpenius, professor at Leiden, is remembered as "one of the men whom the study of oriental languages owes its resurrection" (cf. VI, 329). "The translation of the second part of the 'Tarih al-muslimin', an Arabic chronicle written by the Copt Georgios Al-Makin in the thirteenth century. The first part was already missing from the manuscript which Erpenius used. The text and translation were published by Golius, who had to edit the last two chapters, where Erpenius had broken off. There are three editions: a folio edition containing text and translation; this quarto edition of the translation only, and a small-octavo edition of the text only. The manuscript used for this edition was lent to Erpenius by the Palatine Library, a fact which he acknowledges in the dedication to King Frederick of Bohemia [...] Next to the title and the dedication, the preliminaries contain a short anonymous note introducting the work to the reader (no date, no mention of an Arabic text), and a list of the Khalifs mentioned in the translation" (Smitskamp). - Title page insignificantly browned; slight paper defects in the list of Caliphs (with old repairs), otherwise well-preserved. Rahir 197. Willems 232. Smitskamp PO, 83. Brunet II, 964 (note). Schnurrer 155. GAL I, 348. Juynboll 111-114. Fück 71ff.
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Eyzinger, Michael.
Amurath, des jetzt regierenden Türckischen Keysers oder Sultan, Geschlächt, Stämme und Herkommen, zurück biß auff Othman den Ersten under zwölffen [...]. [Cologne, Gottfried van Kempen, 1591?].
Engraved broadside with letterpress title and text. Ca. 430 x 550 mm. Rare, unrecorded broadside showing the family tree of the reigning sultan of Turkey Amurath III (1548-95) and his eleven ancestors, thus covering 12 generations beginning with sultan Osman I (1259-1326). Two shields display the Sultan’s coat of arms and attributes (turban, sword, bow and arrows, rife and tools). Each sultan has his own engraved portrait; letterpress title above and two columns of letterpress text at the sides: information about the sultans to the left, and information about their brothers (29 in all) at the right. The Austrian scholar Michael Eyzinger (Baron Aitzing, ca. 1530-98) wrote several pamphlets on contemporary historical events, parts of which were published by Gottfried van Kempen (cf. Göllner 1594). He is considered a pioneer of newspaper journalism, as well as of genealogy. - Restored copy; formerly mounted with vague gluestains on verso, skilfully remargined and 2 large repaired horizontal tears (slight loss of image and text).
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[Century of Progress].
Photographs from the Chicago Century of Progress. Chicago, 1933.
A group of 71 photographs of A Century of Progress, held in Chicago in 1933-34. They are by Kaufmann-Fabry, Official Photographers of the fair, and are so marked. The "Century of Progress International Exposition", also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was held from 1933 to 1934. The fair buildings were multi-coloured and generally had a "Moderne" design to them in contrast to the neoclassical themes used at the 1893 fair. One of the more famous aspects of the fair were the performances of fan dancer Sally Rand. Other popular exhibits were the various auto manufacturers, the Midway (filled with nightclubs such as the Old Morocco, where future stars Judy Garland, The Cook Family Singers, and The Andrews Sisters performed), and a recreation of important scenes from Chicago's history. The fair also contained exhibits that would seem shocking to modern audiences, including now-offensive portrayals of African Americans, a "Midget City" complete with "sixty Liliputians", and an exhibition of incubators containing real babies.
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Ferrario, Giulio (ed.).
Il costume antico e moderno o storia del governo, della milizia, della religione, delle arti, scienze ed usanze di tutti i popoli antichi e moderni provata coi monumenti dell' antichita e rappresentata cogli analoghi disegni. Milan, tipografia dell'editore, 1829-1834.
Folio (380 x 265 mm). 37 vols. incl. supplements and index. With 7 engraved folding maps, 5 engraved maps, 1619 coloured aquatints (2 double-page-sized), 2 engraved portraits, 2 engraved plates of musical notes, and 4 tables. Late 19th century half calf with giltstamped spine title. Untrimmed. Without question the largest pictorial encyclopedia of the world published during the 19th century, and one of the rarest works to be found complete. Printed in a press run of no more than 300 copies, this set is numbered "12" and was inscribed to a friend of the author ("del socio Signor G. Ferrario"); as such, it was printed on superior paper and coloured particularly carefully (according to Brunet, most of the 300 copies produced were issued entirely uncoloured). The purpose of this 37-volume set in large folio format was to provide a complete account of all known parts of the world not only by describing in detail the various peoples' costumes, governments, religion, habits, military, arts and science, but also by showing them in splendid illustrations, all of which are here individually coloured by hand. The engravings include not only many costumes, but also buildings, objects of religious and of everyday use, monuments, historical scenes and much more. The plates are printed on wove paper and bear the publisher's drystamp. In spite of the enormous number of plates, the colouring is meticulous throughout. - Initially planned for no more than 13 volumes (1816-1827) and also published in French, this present Italian edition is the only one that was issued complete with all supplements and the plates in their impressive folio format. - Of the utmost rarity: we could not trace a single complete copy on the market since 1950. Auction records list only the abridged 8vo reprint or single volumes of the present folio edition (Sotheby's, May 28, 2002, lot 426: £8,720 for vol. I, pt. 3 only). Interior shows occasional slight foxing to blank margins. Altogether an excellent, complete set of the luxury edition: uniformly bound, untrimmed and wide-margined. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 231. Lipperheide Ad 7. Colas 1051. Hiler 311. Brunet II, 1232f.
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Frank, Othmar.
Chrestomathia Sanskrita, quam ex codicibus manuscriptis, adhuc ineditis, Londini exscripsit, atque in usum Tironum versione, expositione, tabulis grammaticis etc. illustratam edidit [...]. Munich, typographice ac lithographice opera et sumtibus propriis, 1820-1821.
Large 4to (222 x 253 mm.). 2 parts in one volume. XII, 194, (2) pp. (4), 147, (3) pp., all lithographed save for 1 page. With 6 lithographed plates (4 folding). Original temporary grey boards as issued. Rare; one of the first Sanskrit works published in Germany. Lithographed throughout (with the exception of a single letterpress page at the beginning of part 2) and published at the author's expense: "Alles über Umdruck lithographisch gedruckt" (Winkler). Contains the earliest (partial) edition of the Bhagavadgita (in part 2), pre-dating August Wilhelm Schlegel's edition - admittedly better printed - by several years. The former Benedictine monk Frank (1770-1840), an admirer of Persian philosophy, studied oriental languages in Paris and London. In 1821 he took the chair of Indian and Persian at Würzburg University and went to Munich in 1826 as Professor of Sanskrit. In spite of his pioneering work, he exerted little influence on the development of linguistics and Sanskrit studies, probably due to his penchant for mysticism and his laboured, nebulous prose (cf. ADB). - Boards worn; some browning and staining as common. From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013). Graesse II, 629. Winkler 224. ADB VII, 260.
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Frankland-Russell, Robert.
Six sketches in lithography representing the common actions of the Horse. London, C. Turner, 1842.
Folio (54.5 x 38 cm). Six tinted lithographs by Day & Haghe after "R.F.R.". Original drab wrappers. First edition in original wrappers. The large tinted lithographs show "walking", "ambling", "trotting", "cantering", "galloping", and "leaping". - Light spotting in the margins, one plate with a short tear in the margin. Spine worn, some soiling to wrappers.
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Freytag, Georg Wilhelm.
Darstellung der arabischen Verskunst mit sechs Anhängen. Bonn/Leipzig, in Commission bei Carl Cnobloch, 1830.
8vo. XV, (1), 557, (1) pp. German & Arabic text. Contemporary marbled boards with giltstamped spine label; sprinkled edges. First edition of this compendium of Arabic versification. The German classicist and theologian Freytag (1788-1861) studied at Göttingen, but in his final year accepted an appointment as sub-librarian at Königsberg. In 1815 he became a chaplain in the Prussian Army and visited Paris in that capacity. Upon the proclamation of peace Freytag resigned his chaplaincy and returned to his research in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, studying in Paris under Silvestre de Sacy. In 1819 he was appointed to the professorship of Oriental Languages at the new University of Bonn, and he held this post until his death. His principal work was the "Lexicon Arabico-Latinum" (Halle, 1830-1837), an abridgment of which was published in 1837. - Occasional browning; slight chipping to spine; early Swiss ownerships ("Dahler", "R. Tschudi", "Meier") to flyleaf. Stamp of "Stadt-Bibliothek Zürich" on upper cover; deaccessioned from the Zentralbibliothek Zürich (stamp on reverse of t. p.). Zenker I, 342. Fück 166. Gay 3361.
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Gambado, Geoffrey [i.e., Francis Grose?] / Bunbury, Henry William.
An Academy for Grown Horsemen, Containing the Complete Instructions for Walking, Trotting, Cantering, Galloping, Stumbling and Tumbling. London, printed for W. Dickinson, S. Hooper, and Mess. Robinsons, 1787.
Folio (266 x 365 mm). VI, III-XX, 38 pp. With two frontispieces and 21 plates (the frontispiece and 10 out of 11 plates present in two states, both coloured and as sepia mezzotints). - (Bound with:) Annals of Horsemanship. Containing Accounts of Accidental Experiments, and Experimental Accidents Both Successful and Unsuccessful [...]. London, for W. Dickinson, S. Hooper, J. Archer, and R. White, 1791. XVII, (1), 81, (1) pp. With 15 stipple-engraved plates. 19th-century red three-quarters morocco with gilt spine. Marbled endpapers. First editions of Gambano's droll classics on horsemanship featuring H. W. Bunbury's humorous caricatures: a luxury copy with the rare hand-coloured plates included with the first work. "Geoffrey Gambado" has sometimes been identified with the illustrator, but is also said to have been Francis Grose, compiler of "A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" (cf. Riely, "Horace Walpole and 'the Second Hogarth'", in: ECS 9/1 [1975]). In addition to his works on antiquities, satiric essays, and volumes on non-standard words and meanings, Grose (1731-91) wrote "Rules for Drawing Caricaturas: with an Essay on Comic Painting" (1788), and the frontispiece portrait of "Gambado" in the "Academy" bears an uncanny resemblance to Grose, a "stocky, corpulent figure which Grose himself caricatured" (DNB). - The stipple-engraved plates were designed by H. W. Bunbury (1750-1811), whom "Walpole enthusiastically compared [...] to Hogarth. He was the friend of Goldsmith, Garrick, and Reynolds, and the favourite of the Duke and Duchess of York, to whom in 1787 he was appointed equerry. All this, coupled with the facts that he was seldom, if ever, personal, and wholly abstained from political subjects, greatly aided his popularity with the printsellers and the public of his day, and secured his admission, as an honorary exhibitor, to the walls of the Academy, where between 1780 and 1808 his works frequently appeared [... They] are not without a good deal of grotesque drollery of the rough-and-ready kind in vogue towards the end of the last century - that is to say, drollery depending in a great measure for its laughable qualities upon absurd contrasts, ludicrous distortions, horseplay, and personal misadventure" (DNB). - "The Annals of Horsemanship" were later "published with and generally bound with" the "Academy", though always "with a separate title page" (Huth). The "Academy" seemingly wants fol. B1 of the preliminary matter, but was apparently issued that way: as the ESTC notes, "Possibly deliberately mis-signed in order to support the 'missing' portion of the author's preface - see editor's note". - Some browning and brownstaining; occasional edge tears repaired (including a largish fault to fol. M2, the edges of which are more severely frayed). From the library of the late Robert Lionel Foster, Esq. (British Justice of the Peace, d. 1952; his bookplate on front pastedown). Huth p. 52. Lowndes p. 860. Brunet II, 1474 ("singulier ouvrage"). Graesse III, 22.
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Gaudefroy-Demombynes, [Maurice].
Le pèlerinage a la Mekka. Étude d'histoire religieuse. Paris, Paul Geuthner, 1923.
Large 8vo. (4), VIII, 332 pp., 1 bl. f. With a frontispiece showing a mural from the Holy Mosque. Original printed wrappers. First edition. - Principal work of the French Arabist Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes (1862-1957), a religio-historical study of the pilgrimage to Mecca. The author taught at the École nationale des langues orientales vivantes (now the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales) and also translated into French the travelogue of the Arabic explorer Ibn Jobair (1145-1217). - Margins slightly browned and brittle, still a very good, untrimmed copy. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1008.
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Géricault, Théodore.
[Three complete sets of horse studies and two single plates.] Etudes de chevaux après nature. Paris, Gihaut, [1822-1823].
Folio (368 x 272 mm). 30 lithogr. plates, including one title page. Bound in contemporary oblong red half morocco, spine bearing giltstamped title "Chevaux et Voitures". Three series of Gericault's horse studies, each complete as published and in excellent impressions on strong wove paper (not watermarked), bound together with a hitherto unrecorded depiction of a sheikh on an Arabian horse. The first series, published as "Etudes de Chevaux lithographiés" in 1822, shows various horse races, including the Arabian horse as well as Egyptian, English, and French horses. "Cet ouvrage sera composé de trois livraisons, dont chacune contiendra quatre planches" (Beaux-arts de Paris). Second of at least four states throughout, stating the names of the artist and printer. The second series, published without a title in 1823, shows the various purposes for which horses are used (racehorses, military horses, cart horses and postillon horses, among others) and is complete as well with eight prints. The third series, likewise issued without a title in 1823, comprises seven prints depicting cavalry, trotters, a horse leaping over an obstacle, and a jockey on his horse, also including two oriental-themed plates: a lion devouring a horse and a fist-shaking "Giaour" (not from Géricault's Byron series). Three plates from this set are identified by Delteils as contemporary copies by Louis Courtin. The lithographed frontispiece of the first series was bound at the beginning of the present volume to serve as a title. The final leaves in this collection are the dead horse in the snow (an image inspired by Napoleon's Russian campaign) from Géricault's 1823 series "Quatre sujects divers" and a fine plate of a pistol-wielding Sheikh mounted on his Arabian steed, with an oriental desert settlement in the background (not recorded by Delteil). "Gericault est, sans conteste, un des plus grands peintres hippiques de son siècle [...] Les bonnes épreuves sont recherchées et et assez rares" (Mennessier de la Lance I, 545). - Of the utmost rarity: while the British Museum holds the complete suite of the first series, we were unable to trace any complete copies of the other suites contained in this sammelband. While numerous separate Gericault lithographs sold at recent auctions, realising up to £3000 each, not a single complete suite is listed in auction records of the last decades. - All prints are of exceptional quality, with rich contrast on superior paper, occasionally showing various degrees of foxing in the margins; a minute tear to the lower edge of the title leaf. Attractively bound in red half morocco with sparsely gilt spine. Altogether a beautiful copy in excellent, crisp condition. Delteil 46-57; 58-65; 66-72; 77.
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Giorgi, Federico.
Libro [...] del modo di conoscere i buoni falconi, astori, e sparavieri, di farli, di governarli, & medicarli [...]. Brescia, Pietro Maria Marchetti, 1607.
12mo. 136, (8) pp. With woodcut title vignette and 10 woodcuts in the text. - (Bound with) II: Carcano, Francesco. Dell'arte del strucciero con il modo di conoscere, e medicare falconi, astori, et sparavieri, e tutti gli uccelli di rapina. Ibid., 1607. 82, (2) pp. With woodcut title vignette and 7 woodcuts in the text (2 full-page). - (Bound with) III: Manzini, Romano. Ammaestramenti per allevare, pascere, & curare gli uccelli. Ibid., 1607. 58, (2) pp. With woodcut title vignette and 8 woodcuts in the text. Contemporary limp vellum with faded ms. title to spine. Traces of ties. Stored in 18th century two-part custom-made calf slipcase ruled in blind with coloured paper lining. Fine sammelband containing three classic Italian works on hawking, falconry, and the care of birds. I: "Well-known book" (Schwerdt), first published in 1547. The English author Turberville drew heavily on this work for his famous "Booke of Faulconrie or Hauking". - II: "A small book on hawking, by a practical falconer" (Schwerdt). - III: "The second edition of a book on bird catching and the care of birds. The first edition was published at Milan by Pacifico Pontio in 1575 and must be rare" (Schwerdt). "This little book relates solely to cage-birds [...] It is usually bound up with the books on Falconry by Francesco Carcano and Federico Giorgi, and might be supposed to relate to that subject" (Harting). - Slight marginal waterstain mostly confined to the beginning and end of the volume; another, more prominent, in the lower gutter of final leaves. Occasional browning, but altogether a good copy of this collection of rare works in a contemporary binding, well-preserved in its attractive slipcase. I: Schwerdt I, 207. Souhart 217. Cf. Harting 143f. - II: Schwerdt I, 94. Harting 142. Cf. Souhart 86. - III: Schwerdt II, 7. Souhart 315. Harting 147.
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Goldziher, Ignaz.
Abhandlungen zur arabischen Philologie. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1896-1899.
Large 8vo. 2 parts in one vol. VI, (2), 231, (1) pp. CIX, (1), (2), 103, 69 pp. Contemporary half calf with marbled boards and giltstamped title to spine. Marbled endpapers. - Bound between both parts: Michael Jan de Goeje, Dutch orientalist (1836-1909). Autograph letter signed. Leiden, 30 Oct. 1899. 8vo. 2½ pp. Both parts of Goldziher's Treatises on Arabic Philology, comprising in the first part his Notes on the Pre-History of Higâ' Poetry; Old and New Poetry Assessed by Arab Critics; and On the Expression 'Sakîna'; the second part contains his edition of the Kitáb al-Mu'ammarîn by Abu Hatim al-Sigistâni. Includes an autograph letter signed by the Dutch oriental scholar Michael Jan de Goeje to his French colleague Charles Barbier de Meynard (1826-1908) regarding a review of the the present work's second part. With Barbier de Meynard's library stamp on the title page and note "Zur Recension". - Well-preserved. OCLC 3813748. GAL S I, 167 (pt. 2).
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Griffiths, J[ohn].
Travels in Europe, Asia Minor, and Arabia. London, T. Cadell & W. Davies (printed by John Brown in Edinburgh), 1805.
Large 4to. XIX, (1), 396 pp. With engraved frontispiece (W. I. Thomson pinx., E. Mitchell sculp.), engr. folding map, and 4 engr. plates (2 folding). Later marbled half calf with giltstamped red spine label. First edition, dedicated to the travel writer Elizabeth Craven (Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach, formerly wife of the Earl of Berkeley, and friend of Horace Walpole). Griffiths travelled the Orient in 1785 in Greek disguise. His journey took him via Constantinople and Chios, Smyrna, Sardis, Konia, and Taurus to Syria, Antioch, and Aleppo. In Mascat, Oman, he gives a rather baffled account of an oriental dance ("nautch"). - Some browning due to paper, but well-preserved. An untrimmed copy. Atabey 530. Blackmer 755 (wanting half-title). Weber II, 607 (counting 2 plates only). Gay 3573. Graesse III, 155. OCLC 4951921.
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Guadagnoli, Filippo.
Breves arabicae lingua institutiones. Rome, Propaganda Fide, Joseph David Luna, 1642.
Folio. [12], 349, [1], [2 blank] pp. With the Propaganda Fide's woodcut rectangular Jesus and Apostles device on the title-page, their round Jesus and Apostles device above the colophon, 1 woodcut tailpiece, 2 woodcut decorated initials (2 series), and numerous decorations built up from cast arabesque fleurons. Set in roman, italic and Arabic type with incidental Hebrew. Contemporary sheepskin parchment, sewn on 5 cords (3 secured to the boards, 2 cut flush with the bookblock), headbands worked in pink and white, edges sprinkled pink and blue, manuscript spine title in 2nd of 6 compartments. First and only edition of Guadagnoli's Latin grammar of the Arabic language, in a luxurious folio format. In 1632 the Propaganda Fide had begun work on an Arabic Bible that was not to be completed until 1671. Guadagnoli (1596-1656) was one of the correctors for the Bible and in the present grammar, set in the same type, he notes that they have taken special care with their Arabic setting and with the metre to suit them to the desires of native Arabic speakers, though the fact that the text was in Latin and the fact that it must have been an expensive book would have limited the audience: it is not the sort of book that missionaries would give away to common people. Erpenius's 1613 grammar, revised and reprinted several times, was aimed primarily at European scholars. The main text opens with a table of the letters, showing (from left to right!) the stand-alone, initial, medial and final forms, along with the name of each letter and its pronunciation. This gives an overview of the new Arabic Bible type. The texts used as examples include the first printing of two poems taken from manuscripts in the oriental library collected by Pietro della Valle (1586-1652) in Rome: the "Carmen Chazregiacum" and the "Carmen de invocationibus". The Arabic type may have been cut by the Propaganda Fide's in-house punchcutters for their Arabic folio Bible, whose Pentateuch was printed from 1632 to 1635 but distributed only in proof copies until the complete Bible was published in 1671. Occasional lines appear in their other books from 1636, but the present book uses it for the main Arabic text. It was to become the staple of their Arabic printing. The book also gives a nice synopsis of the Propaganda Fide's large Hebrew type (6 mm mem-height). - With early manuscript shelf-marks in ink at the foot (R III 20) and on the back (R III 8) of the title-page. Most of the sheets have browned patches or browned spots, but otherwise in very good condition and with generous margins. Binding very good, with only minor wear and a couple small abrasions. An important Arabic grammar intended for native speakers. Amaduzzi, p. 11; Schnurrer 72; Smitskamp, Philiologia orientalis 220.
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Habibollah Farsi Qa'ani.
[Kitab-i parisan - Kelliyat Hakim Qa'ani]. [Bombay], n. p., [1881 CE] = 1298 H.
(4), 48, 395, (2)-24, (3) pp. Contemporary calf. Folio (240 x 340 mm). Second edition of the "Kitab-i parisan" ("Book of Confusion") by Habibollah Farsi Qa'ani (Mirza Habib Qa'ani, 1808-54), "King of Poets" under Shah Qajar (r. 1848-96). "The work encompasses 113 anecdotes and 33 'pand' (precepts or maxims), often interspersed with little poems. Many anecdotes contain rules of conduct and practical advice for life, in others the author treats of everyday events and points out failures of contemporary society, such as hypocritical clerics, pompous judges, corrupt officials, and crooked tradesmen. In his maxims, the author discusses the state and its ruler, who is above all law and moral confines. Notoriously, some anecdotes feature drunkards, vagabonds, pedophiles, and unfaithful wives; others describe in detail sultry scenes of the kind that must have been popular at the Shah's court" (cf. KNLL). - Binding rubbed. Interior partially browned and with tears; several repairs (some with tape). Rare; only 3 copies in OCLC (Edinburgh, Göttingen, Berlin). KNLL XIII, 771. OCLC 606386695, 837880646, 251660601.
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Hadji Abd-el-Hamid Bey (L[ouis-Laurent] du Couret).
Les mystères du désert. Souvenirs de voyages en Asie et en Afrique. Paris, E. Dentu, 1859.
2 vols. 12mo. XXXIV, (2), 492 pp. (4), 484 pp. With 2 folding maps. Contemporary marbled red half calf with giltstamped title to spine. Marbled endpapers. First edition. - The French traveller L. du Couret (1812-67) is said to have made his first journey to the East in 1836, joining the Egyptian army in Syria and visiting Nubia, Senner, Kordofan, and Darfur. He states that he embraced Islam and made the pilgrimage to Mecca. He remains a dubious character, and some critics have even doubted his existence, attributing his works to the imagination of Alexandre Dumas père, author of the "Three Musketeers", who at least contributed a preface to du Couret's 1854 "Voyage au Pays des Niam-Niams". Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 6. OCLC 10196303. Cf. Gay 29. NYPL Arabia coll. 166 (1860 ed.).
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Hafez (ed. Muhammad Qazwini & Qasim Gani).
Diwan-i Hwaga Sams-ad-Din Muhammad Hafiz Sirazi qaddas sarra-yi al-aziz ba tamam. Tehran, Caphana-i Maglis, 1941.
4to. (132), 400, (2) pp. Publisher's original giltstamped blue cloth. First critical edition of the famous "Diwan" by the great mediaeval Persian poet Hafez, whose work influenced Goethe as well as Thoreau and Emerson. This publication marks the beginning of modern Hafez philology. - Ink note in Arabic script to title page. A clean copy. OCLC 254557372.
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Haines, Stafford Bettesworth.
Memoir to Accompany a Chart of the South Coast of Arabia. [London, The Royal Geographical Society], 1839-1845.
8vo. 2 vols., pp. 125-156 and 103-160 of the Geographical Journal of 1839 and 1845, respectively. With a text illustration and two large folding engr. maps of the South East Arabian coast. Offprints in modern wrappers. Early British study of today's Yemen coast. Captain S. B. Haines led a party aboard the "Palinurus" in the 1830s to survey the almost unknown southeast coast of Arabia; he seized Aden in 1839 on behalf of the East India Company, for use as a coaling station for ships steaming to and from India. Appointed Political Agent by the Bombay Presidency of the EIC, Haines served in this capacity (without leave) for the next fifteen years, presiding over Aden’s rapid expansion as a fortress and as a port which by the early 1850s boasted a population of some 20,000. Haines’s deep personal commitment to the revival of Aden’s prosperity ultimately led to his tragic imprisonment in Bombay for debt and to his death (aged only 58) in 1860. But in South West Arabia his name lived on and for decades local tribesmen referred to the inhabitants of Aden as "Awlad Haines" ("Haines’s children"). These two articles, separated by six years, contain Haines's full account of the findings of the survey, with accompanying maps. Among the members of the party was James Wellsted, who during the course of the survey explored the island of Socotra, and also proceeded into the Arabian Peninsula as far as the Rub' al Khali. - Insignificant edge tear to one map, otherwise fine. Macro 1101.
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Hajd Thami Glaoui, "Lord of the Atlas", Pasha of Marrakech (1879-1956).
Autograph quotation signed. In Arabic. Marrakesh, no date.
Folio. 1 page. The Pasha's headed notepaper mounted on uncut wove paper, bearing the Schoellers-Parole blind embossed seal, margins uncut. The original autograph contribution of Hajd Thami Glaoui to the Committee of the World League for Peace (Ligue Mondiale pour la Paix), a remarkable organisation formed in 1925 with close ties to the League of Nations. The Committee itself was composed of such notaries as Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, King Carol II of Romania, John D Rockefeller, Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein, who personally gathered the present manuscripts over the course of seven years (1925-32). Among the public figures who contributed to the project were dignitaries from the newly-created League of Nations' member states. The present manuscript has been studied extensively by native Arabic scholars, who nevertheless have been unable to decipher the Pasha's handwriting (see accompanying document). "Praise be to God! [...] war and establishing peace is the goal of every human being [...] decisions [...] goal. Truth is victory [...] nations [...] purposes [...] the League of Nations [...] he who knows his goal must strive to support [...] and peace. [Signed] Hajd Thami Glaoui". Thami Glaoui ruled as Pasha of Marrakech from 1912 until his death in 1956, amassing one of the largest fortunes in the world (reckoned to be $50 million) from harvests, stock, taxation, and (according to a Time Magazine article) a cut of the earnings of the 27,000 prostitutes operating in the Marrakech area. He has become a despised figure in Moroccan politics; he was, for example, a full ally of the French regime and conspired with them to successfully overthrow Sultan Mohammed V in 1953. His personal style and charm, as well as his prodigality with his wealth, made him many friends among the international fashionable set of the day. He visited the European capitals often, while his visitors at Marrakech included Winston Churchill, Colette, Maurice Ravel, and Charlie Chaplin. Pax Mundi. Livre d'or de la paix. Enquete universelle de la Ligue mondiale pour la paix sous le haut patronage de son comite d'honneur avec l'approbation de la Societe des nations, du Bureau international du travail et de la Cour permanente de justice internationale. Geneve, Societe paxunis, 1932. TIME Magazine May 20th, 1957.
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Hammer-Purgstall, Joseph von.
Wamik und Asra, das ist der Glühende und die Blühende. Das älteste persische romantische Gedicht, im Fünftelsaft abgezogen. Vienna, J. B. Wallishausser, 1833.
8vo. 40 pp. With woodcut vignette at the end. Boards. First edition of Hammer's German translation of this Persian verse epic. A good copy showing very little browning. Graesse III, 206. Goedeke VII, 766, 84. OCLC 29890924.
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Harting, James Edmund.
Hints on the Management of Hawks. Second edition, to which is added Practical Falconry, chapters historical and descriptive. London, Horace Cox, 1898.
8vo. VII, 268 pp. With 11 full-page black and white plates and 42 numbered black and white illustrations in text. Including errata-slip tipped-in at end. Original gilt green cloth. The second and best edition of Harting's manual on the management of hawks and a historical and descriptive explanation on practical falconry. For this edition, the author not merely revised the original text, but made considerable additions to it, as well as to the illustrations. Plates and illustrations include a hooded falcon on block, heron hawking, kite hawking with jerfalcons, the falconer's knot, a falcon in flight, etc. The first edition of this work appeared in 1884 with the same publisher. "Not recommended for the beginner [...] Much interesting material collected from various sources, particularly the instructions for hawk catching" (Barber). - Binding rubbed, spine-ends chipped; first and last leaves slightly foxed and the usual browning, pasted bookplate and manuscript entry on blank recto of the frontispiece. Good copy of this manual on practical falconry and the management of hawks. Barber 7. OCLC 23929448. Cf. Harting 80 (first edition). Schwerdt I, 233 (first edition).
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Hassan, Zaky A.
Hunting as Practised in Arab Countries of the Middle Ages. Bulaq, Government Press, 1937.
8vo. (2), 15, (5) pp. With 12 plates. Original printed wrappers. Study of Mediaeval Arabic hunting methods, by the curator of the Museum of Arab art, Cairo, and published by the Egyptian Ministry of Education. Well-preserved copy. OCLC 67900862.
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