Golf

Golf — marelibri

Die Ritterlich und lobwürdig reiß [...] Sagend von den landen, Egypto, Syria, von beiden Arabia Persia, India und Ethiopia, von den gestalten, sitten, und dero menschen leben und glauben. Strasbourg, Johann Knobloch, 1516.

4to. 226 pp. (A8, B-C4, D8, E-F4, G8, H-J4, K8, L-M4, N8, O-P4, Q8, R-S4, T6, V4, X7, without the final blank). With title woodcut and 47 woodcuts in the text (including 1 full-page illustration). - (Bound after) II: Giovio, Paolo. Libellus de legatione Basilii Magni principis Moschoviae ad Clementem VII. Pontificem Max. in qua situs regionis antiquis incognitus, religio gentis, mores, & causae legationis fidelissime referuntur. Basel, [J. Froben], 1527. 39, (1) pp. With woodcut printer's device to t. p. - (Bound after) III: Fabri (of Leutkirch), Johann. Ad serenissimum principem Ferdinandum Archiducem Austriae, Moscovitarum iuxta mare glaciale religio. Basel, J. Bebel, 1526. 18 ff. - (Bound after) IV: Ricoldo (da Monte di Croce). Contra sectam Mahumeticam libellus. (Georgius de Hungaria). De vita & moribus Turcorum. Carben, Victor de. Libellus de vita et moribus Iudaeorum (ed. J. Lefèvre). Paris, H. Estienne, 1511. 86 ff. With large woodcut in the text and several woodcut initials. - (Bound after) V: Ficinus, Marsilio. De religione Christiana & fidei pietate opusculum. Xenocrates de morte, eodem interprete. Strasbourg, J. Knobloch, 1507. 90 ff. With woodcut printer's device on final page. - (Bound after) VI: Haythonus (Hatto). Liber historiarum partium orientis, sive passagium terrae sanctae scriptus anno Redemptoris nostri M.CCC. Hagenau, J. Setzer, 1529. 71 ff. With woodcut title border and device on final page. Contemp. wooden boards with wide blindstamped leather spine and 2 brass clasps. The first illustrated edition (in its second issue) of one of the most famous early travel reports and the first Western encounter with the Arab world. Of the utmost rarity; not a single copy could be traced on the market for the past sixty years; not a single copy in the USA (cf. OCLC). - The "Itinerario" contains the first printed eyewitness account of any place in today's United Arab Emirates: on his return journey from Mecca (which he was the first Westerner to describe), Varthema visited Ras al-Khaimah ("Giulfar") and portrayed the city as "most excellent and abounding in everything", with "a good seaport", and whose inhabitants are "all Muslims". While Montalboddo's famous anthology of discoveries, printed in 1507, contained the first printed reference to the Arabian Gulf region, it was Varthema's work, published only three years later, that offered the first actual report from the region by a Western traveller who had visited the coast. - All early editions of Varthema’s “Itinerario” are exceedingly rare (even the 2013 Hajj exhibition at the MIA, Doha, only featured the 1654 reprint; cf. below). This - the first illustrated one - is certainly the rarest of them all: international auction records list not a single copy. The 1510 editio princeps was offered for US$ 1 million at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair in April 2011. - Varthema, a gentleman adventurer and soldier from Bologna, left Venice at the end of 1502. In 1503 he reached Alexandria and ascended the Nile to Cairo, continuing to Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where, adopting Islam and taking the name of Yunas, he joined a Mameluke escort of a Hajj caravan and began the pilgrimage to Mecca. Varthema was amazed by what he observed: "Truly I never saw so many people collected in one spot as during the twenty days I remained there", he begins, and arriving at the Great Mosque, continues, "it would not be possible to describe the sweetness and the fragrances which are smelt within this temple." Thanks to his knowledge of Arabic and Islam, Varthema was able to appreciate the local culture of the places he visited. Impressed and fascinated, he describes not only rites and rituals, but also social, geographical, and day-to-day details. "I determined, personally, and with my own eyes", he declares in the prefatory dedication, "to ascertain the situation of places, the qualities of peoples [...] of Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Felix, Persia, India, and Ethiopia, remembering well that the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than ten hear-says." His good fortune did not continue unabated, however: after embarking at Jeddah and sailing to Aden, he was denounced as a Christian spy and imprisoned. He secured his release and proceeded on an extensive tour of southwest Arabia. Stopping in Sanaa and Zebid as well as a number of smaller cities, he describes the people, the markets and trade, the kind of fruits and animals that are plentiful in the vicinity, and any historical or cultural information deemed noteworthy. Returning to Aden, and after a brief stop in Ethiopia, he set sail for India. In addition to visiting Persia, Varthema explored the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, including a very documented stay at Calicut at the beginning of 1505. He also purports to have made extensive travels around the Malay peninsula and the Moluccas. Returning to Calicut in August 1505, he took employment with the Portuguese at Cochin and, in 1508, made his way back to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. - First published in 1510, Varthema's account became an immediate bestseller. In addition to his fascinating account of Egypt, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and the holy Muslim cities, "Varthema brought into European literature an appreciation of the areas east of India [...] which it had previously not received from the sea-travelers and which confirmed by firsthand observations many of the statements made earlier by Marco Polo and the writers of antiquity" (Lach, I. i. 166). "Varthema was a real traveller. His reports on the social and political conditions of the various lands he visited are reliable as being gathered from personal contact with places and peoples. His account of the overland trade is of great value in that we are made to see it before it had begun to give way to the all-seas route. He even heard of a southern continent and of a region of intense cold and very short days, being the first European probably after Marco Polo to bring back the rumor of Terra Australis" (Cox I, 260). - Bound with this work are five other 16th century imprints: II: Giovio's report on Russia is based on conversations with the Russian envoy Dimitry at the court of Pope Clement VII in Rome. - III: "The second printed book on Russia" (NUC), intelligence on Russia gathered by the later bishop of Vienna in Tübingen in 1525 from the envoy of the Grand Prince Ivan Vasilievitch. - IV: "Very rare anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic volume, of which this is the first edition to include the third tract by Victor de Carben" (Schreiber). Contains the report by Georgius de Hungaria, who was captured in 1438 during the siege of Mühlbach and was sold into Turkish slavery. Also includes the anti-Muslim treatise of Ricoldo (1242-1320) and the anti-Semitic pamphlet of Victor de Carben (1422-1515), a converted Rabbi from Cologne. - V: Fine Strasbourg humanist edition of two works by the great Neo-Platonist Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), including his 1474 apology of Christianity against Islam and Judaism. - VI: First Latin edition, edited by Menrad Molther, with his dedication to Georg von Morsum. The Armenian prince Haytho reached Poitiers in 1306 and there dictated his history of the Middle East since the first appearance of the Mongols. - Spine slightly rubbed; some browning, annotations and occasional worming. Ms. index of all works contained on front pastedown. Removed from the Donaueschingen court library with their stamps on first and final page. I: VD 16, ZV 15157. BM-STC 66. IA 113.543 (includes copies in BSB Munich and Wolfenbüttel). Benzing (Strasbourg) 100. Schmidt (Knobloch) 132. Ritter (IV) 932 & 2000. Muller 132, 170. Kristeller 383. Paulitschke 296. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 305. Röhricht 574. Cf. exhibition cat. “Hajj - The Journey Through Art” (Doha, 2013), p. 90 (1655 Dutch ed. only). Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2239 (other editions only). - II: BM-STC 360. VD 16, G 2081. Adelung I, 188 ("1537" in error). - III: BM-STC 294. VD 16, F 189. Adelung I, 185. - IV: BM-STC 317. Moreau 197. Renouard 9, 1. Göllner 48. Apponyi 78. Schreiber 11. - V: BM-STC 302. Adams F 416. VD 16, F 939. Ritter 838. The same, Catalogue, 978. Schmidt (Knobloch) 33. Muller 117, 29. - VI: BM-STC 403. VD 16, H 870. Adelung I, 119 (imprecise). Röhricht 176 (p. 66). Ritter 1090. The same, Catalogue, 1171. Burg 200. Benzing (Hagenau) 84, 107.

Inlibris · Wien, AT450.000,00 €

Breydenbach, Bernhard von.MareMagnum

Peregrinatio in terram sanctam. Mainz, Erhard Reuwich, 11 Feb. 1486.

Folio (226 x 312 mm). 147 (instead of 148) unnumbered ff. (lacking the final blank). With numerous red and blue Lombardic initials (some up to eight lines high), full-page title woodcut, 8 woodcuts and 6 woodcut alphabets in the text, 2 woodcut initials (1 armorial), small woodcut printer's device, and 7 folding woodcut views (some with text or woodcut illustrations on verso). Finely gilt maroon shagreen binding, ca. 1820, with giltstamped title and decorations to spine; covers stamped in gilt and blind with pretty floral borders and gilt decorations to corners; leading edges and inner dentelle gilt. Red endpapers. All edges gilt. Editio princeps of the first modern travelogue of a journey from Venice to the Holy Land, and "the first illustrated book of travel ever printed [...] [T]he folding panoramic views [...] are the first authentic representations of the famous places depicted, i. e., the ports usually visited by every pilgrim of the period [... The] artist was Erhard Reuwich [..., who] graphically record[ed] the impressions of the voyage" (Davies). The splendid panoramic folding views show Venice (ca. 160 cms long!), Porec and Corfu (both ca. 40 cms), Methoni, Crete and Rhodes (all ca. 80 cms) as well as Jerusalem (ca. 130 cms). - This work is considered the first authentic Western source for the Near and Middle East, as the illustrations were prepared from actual observation of the lands and people described. Breydenbach travelled to the Holy Land in 1483/84 with a large party including the artist Reuwich from Utrecht. Following the traditional route, they travelled from Venice to Corfu, Modon, Crete, Rhodes and Jaffa before arriving in Jerusalem, and then through the Sinai desert to Mt. Sinai, Cairo, and Alexandria on the return journey. The book quickly became extremely popular and was translated into French, Dutch and Spanish before 1500. It includes illustrations of Middle Eastern and Bedouin costume, a glossary of common Arabic words, and pictures of animals encountered on the journey (including a crocodile, a camel, and even a unicorn), as well as an Arabic alphabet - the latter of especial importance for being the first of its kind ever to see print: "The first representation of Arabic letters in a printed book was done in Germany; this was the woodcut of the Arabic alphabet in Bernhard von Breydenbach's 'Peregrinatio'" (Toomer). - Title-page trimmed to the neatline, remargined on all sides, a narrow strip along the left edge as well as a tiny ornament at the bottom supplied in meticulous ink. A témoin to upper corner of a single leaf (not touching text), another leaf showing a short tear near the gutter and traces of old glue; lower corner of final leaf remargined. Dry-cleaned throughout very carefully, the paper retaining light browning and occasional fingerstains. The views are very well preserved throughout and present as entirely complete, although some have small portions supplied from other copies of the same edition or are professionally retouched: some 22 cms in the middle section of the view of Venice are barely noticeably supplied in ink, and three segments are from another copy; tiny flaws in the folds. One fold in the view of Methoni is rebacked with a tiny gap. One half of Crete and Rhodes each supplied from another copy, seguing into each other in professionally drawn ink retouchings measuring ca. 2 cms. Right half of the view of Rhodes trimmed to neatline and remargined; a few professionally restored edge tears. The spectacular view of Jerusalem, frequently lacking, is complete and uncommonly well preserved, showing only are few well-restored edge tears. Altogether an outstanding copy on strong, unusually wide-margined paper, splendidly bound in the early 19th century. - The present first edition is extremely rare in the trade, usually appearing only in severely mutilated copies or even in fragments comprising no more than a few leaves. The only similarly complete copy in auction records since 1900 was the Perrins-Wardington copy (complete), sold at Sotheby's in 2005 for £265,600 (today, ca. EUR 500,000), while the Consul Smith copy sold at Christie's in 2018 lacked one quire consisting of the Jerusalem view and 2 woodcut scenes, as well as about half of Venice and Rhodes views. - From the library of the great English bibliophile Thomas Edward Watson, 1st Bart. (1851-1921) with his engraved bookplate ("St. Mary's Lodge, Newport Monmouthshire") on the front pastedown; old bookseller's catalogue clipping mounted to flyleaf and pencil annotation: "This is a far finer copy than the B[ritish] M[useum] Copy ..., that being badly coloured & much wormed". Last in a noted German private collection and acquired directly. HC 3956. Goff B-1189. GW 5075. Proctor 156. Pellechet 2979. BMC I, 43. BSB-Ink B-909. Klebs 220.1. Schreiber 3628. Bodleian B-552. Hubay 468. Schäfer 84. Oates 52. Davies, Breydenbach, no. I. Fairfax Murray 92. Campbell (Maps) 65. Hillard 486. Aquilon 181. Arnoult 366. Parguez 275. Péligry 226. Torchet 228. Zehnacker 577. ISTC ib01189000.

Inlibris · Wien, AT375.000,00 €

[Arabian Horse Breeding].MareMagnum

A library on Arabian horse breeding, including Stud Books and General Reference. From the Le Vivier, Marcia Parkinson and Finkelmeyer Family Collections, with Additions from the Library of Duke Maximilian in Bavaria. Various places, 1788-2011.

The largest collection of its kind in private hands. 330 works in more than 1100 volumes. Mostly original or first editions. Published in Austin, Cairo, Chicago, Hildesheim, London, Marburg, Moscow, New York, Philadelphia, Riga, Tehran, Warsaw and other places in the years 1788 to 2011. Amassed over the last fifty years and covering four centuries of relevant material, the present collection spans all aspects of the history and development of the breeding of Arabian horses. It comprises within itself many books from the Le Vivier collection: fine press books of racing and thoroughbred literature produced by Eugene Connett's famous Derrydale press, as well as numerous important items from the library of Duke Maximilian in Bavaria (1808-88), himself a great enthusiast of Arabic horses. We here find the early Arabian Horse Registry of America Stud Books, and many items also bear presentation inscriptions from the authors (Carl Raswan, Gladys Brown Edwards, etc.). The common practice in such a specialized field, most of the publications here were issued for a very limited circulation in runs of 1,000 or fewer individually-numbered copies. - As a reference library for breeding the collection is unparalleled: almost any Arabian horse's forefathers will be found amongst the exhaustive stud books and breeding serials from the 18th to the 20th century, from Egypt, Australia, Iran, Spain, Russia, the USA, etc., often with accompanying photographs. Perhaps the most famous reference work is the Raswan Index, of which only 380 copies were printed (and many destroyed by a flood). Raswan became an expert on the Arabian breed through his lengthy trips to the desert, where he lived with the Bedouins and learned their language and customs. Several scarce early 20th century works also testify to the Western fascination with the Bedouin and desert roots of the Arabian horse: Homer Davenport's 'My Quest of the Arabian Horse' (1909) and Raswan's 'The Black Tents of Arabia: My Life Amongst the Bedouins' (1935). - Alongside modern surveys of the key centres of horse-breeding in the Arab world, the early Western classics are also found here in their scarce first editions. French and German authors are also well-represented, including the text and first French translation of the 'Hilyat al-fursân wa-shi'âr ash-shuj'ân', an abridgement of Ibn Hudhail's horse treatise, prepared around 1400. Finally, the owner's collection of notable catalogues and magazines paints a fascinating composite picture of the evolution, and heyday, of Arabian horse-breeding in the Arab world, Poland, America, and the United Kingdom. - Also contained in this magnificent collection are the classic reference works on Arabian and Anglo-Arabian racehorses and their breeding. These standard works and encompassing sets of specialised thoroughbred literature include not only the indispensable guides to horse pedigrees, the Racing Calendar, General Stud Book, Spanish, American and Australian Stud Books, Bloodstock Breeders' Review, and Prior's Register of Thoroughbred Stallions, in near-complete runs stretching back as far as the 18th century, but also British and international horseracing history, and several volumes of exquisite coloured plates. - The size and comprehensiveness of the present collection cannot be overstated; it is safe to say that it represents the largest private collection of its kind which has come up for sale in recent decades. Many of the items found here can be located in just a handful of public institutions worldwide. Such items come into the market so rarely (and have recently, like the Raswan Index and the AHRA Stud Books, commanded prices of five figures) that it would be impossible to build a comparable collection item-by-item; the volumes here represent a lifetime of serious dedication to the task. Yet the value of such a collection lies not simply in its impressive number of important publications, but in the vast amount of practical knowledge contained within. - Illustrated catalogue available upon request.

Inlibris · Wien, AT350.000,00 €

Du Camp, Maxime.MareMagnum

Égypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie: dessins photographiques recueillis pendant les années 1849, 1850 et 1851, accompagnés d’un texte explicatif et précédés d’une introduction. Paris, Gide & J. Baudry, 1852.

Folio (447 × 315 mm). 125 mounted original salt prints, letterpress captions to mounting leaves and tissue-guards, 3 small engravings to the introductory text, double-page engraved plan of Karnak, single-page plans of Medinet-Habu and the island of Philae. Recent half brown cloth, marbled boards, original spine, brown hard-grained morocco laid down, title gilt direct, low flat bands with dotted roll gilt, double fillet panels to the compartments, new endpapers, original marbled free endpapers retained. Extremely rare first edition, complete, illustrated with 125 salt prints from wet paper negatives (Blanquart-Evrard process) mounted one to a page. Maxime Du Camp’s monumental survey, "Égypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie", was the first of its kind, the first travel album to be completely illustrated with photographs of archaeological monuments. - A young man of independent means, Du Camp learnt the craft of photography from Le Gray in 1849 in preparation for his second journey to North Africa. By the time he came to Abu Simbel in March 1850 to explore the rock-cut temples built by Ramesses II (reigned 1292-1225 BC), Du Camp was thoroughly at ease with the medium. With official backing from the French Government, and travelling in the company of the novelist Gustave Flaubert, Du Camp returned with over 200 paper negatives of the antiquities of Egypt and the Near East, of which 125 were published in the present work. The illustrations were produced at the photographic printing works of Louis-Désiré Blanquard-Évrard at Lille and their distinctive cool neutral tones are due to the prints being chemically developed rather than merely printed-out in sunlight. - Distinguished as it was, Du Camp’s photographic career was short-lived. After the completion of his magisterial survey of the antiquities of the Near East, he abandoned photography entirely in favour of literary pursuits. - Soundly bound, presenting well on the shelf. Front hinge slightly cracked towards the head at the first blank, some very light foxing throughout, but altogether an excellent copy. Parr/Badger, The Photobook, I, 73. QNL Inaugural Exhibition (2018), 153.

Inlibris · Wien, AT350.000,00 €

[Kitab Alf layla wa-layla].MareMagnum

Kitab Alf layla wa-layla. Vols. I and II. Bulaq, al-Matba’ah al-kubra, [1835 CE =] 1251 H.

Royal 8vo (262 x 194 mm). 2 vols. 710 pp. 620 pp. Printed in Arabic throughout, floral woodcut sarlawh to each volume, text within two-line frame throughout, titles in nasta'liq types. Bound in somewhat later half leather over marbled boards; spine on five raised bands with gilt title, volume number, and edition. Double endpapers. Housed in custom-made, half-cloth modern slipcase. First complete edition in Arabic of the Thousand and One Nights, and the first edition printed in the Arab world. Very rare, with seven copies only located in libraries worldwide (American University Beirut, British Library, Danish Royal Library, Harvard, Huntington, and Yale); none traced in auction records. The Bulaq edition was preceded by another two-volume edition printed at Calcutta between 1814 and 1818, which contained a selection of 200 "Nights" only; the German orientalist Max Habicht began his multi-volume, so-called Breslau edition in 1824, though it remained incomplete on his death in 1839, and at any rate used the Bulaq text as one of its many sources. The Bulaq edition was prepared by one ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sifti al-Sharqawi, probably from a single manuscript which is now lost. It proved "more correct than the garbled and semi-colloquial renderings given by the manuscripts used in the compilations of Calcutta I and Breslau", and was instrumental in stabilising the Thousand and One Nights corpus (Irwin, The Arabian Nights: A Companion, p. 44). It was the main source for Edward Lane’s pioneering English translation (1889-41) and for the last of the four historically important Arabic editions, published at Calcutta in 1839-42 (and known as "Calcutta II"). Bulaq and Calcutta II "superseded almost completely all other texts and formed the general notion of the Arabian Nights. For more than half a century it was neither questioned nor contested that the text of the Bulaq and Calcutta II editions was the true and authentic text" (Marzolph, The Arabian Nights Reader, p. 88). - The printing press at Bulaq, Cairo, founded in 1821 by Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, was the first indigenous press in Egypt and one of the first anywhere in the Arab world, its literary output catering to a keen export market and increased demand among the expanding professional classes of Muhammad ‘Ali’s Egypt. For the first few years the press used types cast in Italy, then France. "In 1826 Muhammad ‘Ali sent a delegation to Europe to study printing, and by the 1830s printing had reached a good technical level at Bulaq" (Kent et al., eds., Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Science, vol. 24, p. 63). The present edition exhibits the high standards of Bulaq printing, with the main text composed in authentic and legible naskh-style types, interspersed with attractive headings in nasta’liq. - Condition report: 19th-century bibliographical notes on a typed vignette mounted on the endpapers of each volume; bibliographical notes in pencil on endpaper of vol. 1. Handwritten tables of contents loosely inserted to both volumes, probably in Barbier de Meynard's hand in ink and pencil. A few marginal notes in Arabic and French written in pen and pencil throughout. Occasional spotting; pages very slightly yellowed due to age. A tiny hole throughout, at the upper inner corner of the framing rules. Vol. 1: Two small holes at the gutter of fol. [157]2 (pp. 627f.) and minute damage to the upper edge of the last 9 ff. Spine rubbed, upper compartment professionally restored. Vol. 2: A larger light stain to the margin of fol. [4]1 (pp. 13f.), moderately touching the text area but not affecting legibility. Insignificant worming to lower margin of the first 10 ff. Spine rubbed, front hinge professionally restored. Interior of both volumes is clean and firm, overall in very good condition. - Provenance: from the collection of the French oriental scholar Charles Barbier de Meynard (1826-1906) with his stamp and ownership inscription "Bibliothéque de Mr Barbier de Meynard" in both volumes. A member of the Société Asiatique and editor of "Dictionnaire Géographique de la Perse", Barbier de Meynard authored several books and articles and co-translated the 9-volume "Moruj al-dahab" ("Les prairies d'or") of Al-Masudi (Paris, 1861-77). His inscription "Donne par A. Dantan" in the first volume probably refers to Antoine Dantan, a member of the renowned French dragoman dynasty. Chauvin IV, 18, 20K. Brunet III, 1715. Graesse IV, 523. Fawzi M. Tadrus, Printing in the Arab World with emphasis on Bulaq Press (Doha: University of Qatar, 1982), p. 64. Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution. A Cross-Cultural Encounter, Westhofen 2002, p. 184. Heinz Grotzfeld. Neglected Conclusions of the "Arabian Nights": Gleanings in Forgotten and Overlooked Recensions. In: Journal of Arabic Literature, Vol. 16, (1985), pp. 73-87. Ulrich Marzolph (ed.). The Arabian nights in transnational perspective, Wayne State University Press 2007, p. 51.

Inlibris · Wien, AT285.000,00 €

Ferrario, Giulio (ed.).MareMagnum

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.

Inlibris · Wien, AT280.000,00 €

(Varthema, Lodovico di.MareMagnum

The Navigation and v[o]yages of Lewes Vertomannus, Gentelman of the citie of Rome, to the regions of Arabia, Egypte, Persia, Syria, Ethiopia, and East India, both within and without the ryver of Ganges, etc. In the yeere of our Lorde 1503. Conteynyng many notable and straunge thinges, both hystoricall and naturall. Translated out of Latine into Engylshe, by Richarde Eden). London, Richard Jugge, 1577.

4to. (10), 466, (6) ff. With historiated woodcut initials. Splendid modern full navy blue morocco, bands on spine with title showing faded gilt, covers double-ruled gilt. The first English edition of Ludovico di Varthema's famous travels to Arabia, Persia, and India: the highly important and adventurous narrative containing the first printed eyewitness account of any place in today's United Arab Emirates. On his return journey from Mecca (which he was the first Westerner to describe), Varthema visited Ras al-Khaimah ("Giulfar") and portrayed the city as "most excellent and abounding in everything", with "a good seaport", and whose inhabitants are "all Muslims". While Montalboddo's famous anthology of discoveries, printed in 1507, contained the first printed reference to the Arabian Gulf region, it was Varthema's work, published only three years later, that offered the first actual report from the region by a Western traveller who had visited the coast. All early editions of Varthema’s "Itinerario" are exceedingly rare (even the 2013 Hajj exhibition at the MIA, Doha, only featured the 1654 reprint; cf. below). - Varthema, a gentleman adventurer and soldier from Bologna, left Venice at the end of 1502. In 1503 he reached Alexandria and ascended the Nile to Cairo, continuing to Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where, adopting Islam and taking the name of Yunas, he joined a Mameluke escort of a Hajj caravan and began the pilgrimage to Mecca. Varthema was amazed by what he observed: "Truly I never saw so many people collected in one spot as during the twenty days I remained there", he begins, and arriving at the Great Mosque, continues, "it would not be possible to describe the sweetness and the fragrances which are smelt within this temple." Thanks to his knowledge of Arabic and Islam, Varthema was able to appreciate the local culture of the places he visited. Impressed and fascinated, he describes not only rites and rituals, but also social, geographical, and day-to-day details. "I determined, personally, and with my own eyes", he declares in the prefatory dedication, "to ascertain the situation of places, the qualities of peoples [...] of Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Felix, Persia, India, and Ethiopia, remembering well that the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than ten hear-says." His good fortune did not continue unabated, however: after embarking at Jeddah and sailing to Aden, he was denounced as a Christian spy and imprisoned. He secured his release and proceeded on an extensive tour of southwest Arabia. Stopping in Sanaa and Zebid as well as a number of smaller cities, he describes the people, the markets and trade, the kind of fruits and animals that are plentiful in the vicinity, and any historical or cultural information deemed noteworthy. Returning to Aden, and after a brief stop in Ethiopia, he set sail for India. In addition to visiting Persia, Varthema explored the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, including a stay at Calicut at the beginning of 1505. He also purports to have made extensive travels around the Malay peninsula and the Moluccas. Returning to Calicut in August 1505, he took employment with the Portuguese at Cochin and, in 1508, made his way back to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. - First published in 1510, Varthema's account became an immediate bestseller. In addition to his fascinating account of Egypt, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and the holy Muslim cities, "Varthema brought into European literature an appreciation of the areas east of India [...] which it had previously not received from the sea-travelers and which confirmed by firsthand observations many of the statements made earlier by Marco Polo and the writers of antiquity" (Lach, I. i. 166). "Varthema was a real traveller. His reports on the social and political conditions of the various lands he visited are reliable as being gathered from personal contact with places and peoples. His account of the overland trade is of great value in that we are made to see it before it had begun to give way to the all-seas route. He even heard of a southern continent and of a region of intense cold and very short days, being the first European probably after Marco Polo to bring back the rumor of Terra Australis" (Cox I, 260). - Published as an extensive part of "The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies" - one of the first English versions of the significant collection edited by Pietro Martire d'Anghiera (Peter Martyr, 1457-1526). The first independently published English translation would not appear until 1863: Varthema's travelogue was included for the first time in the present translated edition of Martyr's "History". The translation, with some omissions, is that of Decades I-III of "De Orbe Novo" by Martyr, with additions from other sources, edited by Richard Eden and Richard Willes. Willes was a member of the Jesuits from 1565 to 1572 and was familiar with Maffei, the Jesuit chronicler whose account he drew on for this work. Under the benefaction of the Earl of Bedford, Willes expanded Eden's translation to include, apart from Varthema's travels, four Decades and an abridgement of Decades V-VIII; Frobisher's voyage for a Northwest Passage, Sebastian Cabot's voyages to the Arctic for the Moscovy Company, Cortez's conquest of Mexico, Pereira's description of China, 1565, Acosta and Maffei's notices of Japan, 1573, and the first two English voyages to West Africa. Also, this is the first account in English of Magellan's circumnavigation, as well as the first printed work to advocate a British colony in North America. - Sympathetically washed but not pressed; some minor repairs to title not affecting printed surface. Some remaining toning and staining in small areas of a few leaves. Generally a wide-margined and appealing copy. - Provenance: acquired from Quaritch in 1975 by Gregory S. Javitch (1898-1980), a Russian-born, Canadian leader in the land reclamation sector in Ontario. Javitch formed an important collection of 2,500 items entitled "Peoples of the New World", encompassing both North and South America, which was acquired by the Bruce Peel Special Collections at the University of Alberta. It was considered the finest such private collection in Canada at the time and formed the cornerstone of the library’s Special collections. The present volume remained in Javitch's private collection was acquired directly from his heirs. Howgego M65. Brunet I, 294. OCLC 5296745. LCCN 02-7743. Alden, European Americana 577/2. Church 119. Streeter Sale 24. Arents 23. Borba de Moraes, p. 33. Hill 533. BM-STC 649. Sabin 1562. Cordier, Japonica 71. Field 485. Cf. exhibition cat. “Hajj - The Journey Through Art” (Doha, 2013), p. 90 (1655 Dutch ed. only). Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2239f. (other editions only). Not in the Atabey or Blackmer collections.

Inlibris · Wien, AT265.000,00 €

Braeckle, Jacques de.MareMagnum

Memoires du voiage de Constantinople de Jacques de Bracle seigneur de Bassecourt. Manuscrit du XVIe siècle. No place, ca. 1570.

4to (210 x 135 mm). French manuscript on paper. 90 ff. Flemish Bastarda in black ink, 26 lines. Bound with 16 strictly contemporary specimens of Turkish silhouette paper, a series of 28 watercolours, heightened in gilt and two extensive, early 19th century manuscript additions (complete transcript of the the travelogue and a biography of the author). Slightly later vellum with ms. title. Unique, fascinating and unpublished manuscript containing the account of a diplomatic journey to the Ottoman Empire in 1570. Braeckle (1540-71), a Flemish physician, "assisted Charles Rym Baron de Bellem, Ambassador of Maximilian II in Constantinople, probably as a secretary. He wrote an account of his journey, which contains interesting details about the places he visited, the manners and customs of the inhabitants, incidents, etc." (Aug. Vander Meersch, in: Belgian National Biography II, 903). Leaving Prague on 13 March 1570, the mission passed through Vienna and then Hungary and Czechoslovakia before entering Ottoman territory, visiting the mosques and caravanserais of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (c. 1505-79), Grand Vizier of Sultan Selim II (1524-74) who ruled the Turks at the time of Rym's and Braeckle's journey. Their stay in Constantinople lasted from 31 May to 12 August 1570, permitting the author to describe several monuments and works of art. During the journey back they travelled through Bulgaria, Serbia (they were held in Belgrade for nearly a month), and Hungary. The mission ended with their return to Germany on 23 October 1570. Jacques de Braeckle died shortly afterwards, in 1571. - The ms. is accompanied by a beautiful set of 28 original watercolours heightened in gilt. Showing Turkish people in traditional costumes, such illustrations were usually fashioned for sale to travellers in Constantinople or passed on to western merchants. However, as the present set includes the caravanserai of the diplomatic legation, it is extremely likely that these were created with the sole purpose of illustrating the diplomatic mission of Charles Rym, described within the present manuscript. The figures are captioned next to the subjects (16th century Italian script in black ink), indicating that the legends were recorded after the plates were collated and sewn together, or that they were included in books before insertion into the present volume. Among the illustrations are the caravanserai of the ambassadors to Constantinople, Sultan Selim II, the Mufti, costumes of Ottoman dignitaries and the military, a Persian, a Moor of Barbary, a lady in burqa, a Bulgarian, a giraffe, etc. The author of the Italian captions may have been the ambassador Edoardo Provisionali: he was responsible for several diplomatic missions and is known to have appreciated the Ottoman culture; furthermore, de Braeckle left Constantinople in his company (cf. Yerasimos). The manuscript is also bound with 16 remarkable specimens of 16th c. Turkish paper (title in French in pen on the first sheet: "papier de Turquie"). At the beginning of the volume is a transcription, calligraphed in an elegant French cursive of the early 19th century (18 unnumbered ff., black ink, 21 lines per page). The volume ends with a short biography of the author (2 pp., black ink, with the arms of de Braeckle). Yerasimos provides a detailed chronology of the journey, listing the major cities visited as well as monuments and curiosities noted by the travellers. - Only three manuscript copies of the present travelogue are recorded, mostly restricted to family use: two copies are in the National Archives of Belgium in Brussels (Fonds 692 Lalang, 8f., cf. Yerasimos); a third copy is bound in a miscellany and kept at the communal Archives of Ghent. - Binding rubbed, spine detached, in excellent condition internally. Stéphane Yerasimos, Les Voyageurs dans l'Empire Ottoman (XIVe-XVIe siècles), Ankara, 1991, pp. 286f. Not in Blackmer or Atabey.

Inlibris · Wien, AT250.000,00 €

Mahmoud Ra'if.MareMagnum

Cedid Atlas Tercümesi [= New Atlas, Translated]. Üsküdar/Istanbul, Tab'hane-yi Hümayunda / Mühenduishâne Press, [April 1803-March 1804 CE] = 1218 H.

Folio (533 x 364 mm). (3), 79 pp., engraved, illustrated title-page and 25 engraved maps after William Faden, in contemporary hand colour. Contemporary black morocco, richly stamped in silver and blind. Bright yellow pastedowns. In custom-made half morocco solander box. The first European-style atlas printed in the Islamic world: an exceedingly rare, handsome, and entirely complete example in its original first binding. "[T]he first world atlas printed by Muslims [...], of which only fifty copies were printed" (Library of Congress, Near East Collections: an illustrated guide, online). Several copies were reserved for high-ranking officials and important institutions; most of the remainder were destroyed in a warehouse fire during the Janissary Revolt of 1808. "Based on several estimates and accounting for the single maps (torn-out from bound volumes of the atlas) sold or being offered worldwide, it is believed that a maximum of 20 complete examples could be present in libraries or in private collections, whereas some sources suggest that there exist only 10 complete and intact copies in the world. As such, it is one of the rarest printed atlases of historical value" (Wikipedia). - A prestigious project for the Ottoman Palace with the seal of approval of the Sultan Selim III, this work was one of the avantgardistic enterprises promoted by Mahmoud Ra'if to introduce Western technical and scientific knowledge to the Ottoman state. Composed of 25 maps based on William Faden's "General Atlas", it is the first Muslim-published world atlas to make use of European geographic knowledge. On each of the maps the place-names are transliterated in Arabic. The Atlas includes Raif's 79-page geographical treatise "Ucalet ül-Cografiye" and the frequently missing folding celestial map on blue paper. - Maps very clean, showing only a few minor stains and repaired tears to folds; a creasemark to the map of Africa; an internal tear to pre-Revolutionary map of France. Binding professionally repaired at extremeties and upper hinge with a few scuffmarks and insignificant traces of worming. An excellent copy, one of the very few surviving specimens in the beautiful original oriental leather binding (the only other known example was sold through us in 2019). A severely defective copy recently commanded an auction price of USD 118,750 (Swann Galleries NY, 26 May 2016, lot 199). OCLC 54966656. Not in Philipps/Le Gear. Not in Atabey or Blackmer collections.

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Varthema, Lodovico di.MareMagnum

Die Ritterlich und lobwürdig reiß [...] Sagend von den landen, Egypto, Syria, von beiden Arabia Persia, India und Ethiopia, von den gestalten, sitten, und dero menschen leben und glauben. Strasbourg, Johann Knobloch, 1516.

4to. 226 pp., final blank f. With title woodcut and 47 woodcuts in the text (including 1 full-page illustration). Blindstamped dark blue morocco by Riviere & Son with giltstamped spine title. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. The first illustrated edition (in its second issue) of one of the most famous early travel reports and the first western encounter with the Arab world. Of the utmost rarity; not a single copy could be traced on the market for the past sixty years; not a single copy in the USA (cf. OCLC). Lodovico de Varthema’s “Itinerario” contains the first printed eyewitness account of any place in today's United Arab Emirates: on his return journey from Mecca (which he was the first Westerner to describe), Varthema visited Ras al-Khaimah ("Giulfar") and portrayed the city as "most excellent and abounding in everything", with "a good seaport", and whose inhabitants are "all Muslims". While Montalboddo's famous anthology of discoveries, printed in 1507, contained the first printed reference to the Arabian Gulf region, it was Varthema's work, published only three years later, that offered the first actual report from the region by a Western traveller who had visited the coast. All early editions of Varthema’s “Itinerario” are exceedingly rare (even the 2013 Hajj exhibition at the MIA, Doha, only featured the 1654 reprint; cf. below). This - the first illustrated one - is certainly the rarest of them all: international auction records list not a single copy. The 1510 editio princeps was offered for US$ 1 million at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair in April 2011. - Varthema, a gentleman adventurer and soldier from Bologna, left Venice at the end of 1502. In 1503 he reached Alexandria and ascended the Nile to Cairo, continuing to Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where, adopting Islam and taking the name of Yunas, he joined a Mameluke escort of a Hajj caravan and began the pilgrimage to Mecca. Varthema was amazed by what he observed: "Truly I never saw so many people collected in one spot as during the twenty days I remained there", he begins, and arriving at the Great Mosque, continues, "it would not be possible to describe the sweetness and the fragrances which are smelt within this temple." Thanks to his knowledge of Arabic and Islam, Varthema was able to appreciate the local culture of the places he visited. Impressed and fascinated, he describes not only rites and rituals, but also social, geographical, and day-to-day details. "I determined, personally, and with my own eyes", he declares in the prefatory dedication, "to ascertain the situation of places, the qualities of peoples [...] of Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Felix, Persia, India, and Ethiopia, remembering well that the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than ten hear-says." His good fortune did not continue unabated, however: after embarking at Jeddah and sailing to Aden, he was denounced as a Christian spy and imprisoned. He secured his release and proceeded on an extensive tour of southwest Arabia. Stopping in Sanaa and Zebid as well as a number of smaller cities, he describes the people, the markets and trade, the kind of fruits and animals that are plentiful in the vicinity, and any historical or cultural information deemed noteworthy. Returning to Aden, and after a brief stop in Ethiopia, he set sail for India. In addition to visiting Persia, Varthema explored the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, including a very documented stay at Calicut at the beginning of 1505. He also purports to have made extensive travels around the Malay peninsula and the Moluccas. Returning to Calicut in August 1505, he took employment with the Portuguese at Cochin and, in 1508, made his way back to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. - First published in 1510, Varthema's account became an immediate bestseller. In addition to his fascinating account of Egypt, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and the holy Muslim cities, "Varthema brought into European literature an appreciation of the areas east of India [...] which it had previously not received from the sea-travelers and which confirmed by firsthand observations many of the statements made earlier by Marco Polo and the writers of antiquity" (Lach, I. i. 166). "Varthema was a real traveller. His reports on the social and political conditions of the various lands he visited are reliable as being gathered from personal contact with places and peoples. His account of the overland trade is of great value in that we are made to see it before it had begun to give way to the all-seas route. He even heard of a southern continent and of a region of intense cold and very short days, being the first European probably after Marco Polo to bring back the rumor of Terra Australis" (Cox I, 260). - A few contemporary underlinings and marginalie. Some slight browning and staining as usual; stamp of the Dukes of Saxe-Meiningen on the reverse of the title. VD 16, ZV 15157. BM-STC 66. IA 113.543 (includes copies in BSB Munich and Wolfenbüttel). Benzing (Strasbourg) 100. Schmidt (Knobloch) 132. Ritter (IV) 932 & 2000. Muller 132, 170. Kristeller 383. Paulitschke 296. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 305. Röhricht 574. Cf. exhibition cat. “Hajj - The Journey Through Art” (Doha, 2013), p. 90 (1655 Dutch ed. only). Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2239 (other editions only).

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[Description de l'Égypte].MareMagnum

Description de l'Egypte, ou recueil des observations et des recherches, qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée Française. Paris, C. L. F. Panckoucke, 1820-1829.

A total of 36 vols.: 26 text vols. (4to) and 10 atlas vols. (elephant folio). With coloured frontispiece and 899 engraved plates and maps, many double-page-sized and folded. Slightly later English half calf, professionally repaired in places. Second edition of this monumental work (the first was published from 1809 onwards), the first comprehensive description of ancient and modern Egypt. Commissioned by Napoleon during his Egyptian campaign between 1798 and 1801, this encompassing historical, archaeological, art-historical, and natural-historical account of the country was realised through the efforts of the Institut d'Egypte in Cairo. Its influence was enormous, establishing Egyptology as an intellectual discipline and nurturing a passion for Egyptian art throughout the Western world. Edited by some of the leading intellectual figures in France, the Description also includes contributions from celebrated artists such as Jacques Barraband, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, Jules-César Savigny and others. More than 150 scholars and scientists and some 2000 artists, designers and engravers were involved in its preparation. The success of the publication was such that work on the second edition (known as the "Pancoucke edition") began before the first was completed. The text was expanded into a greater number of volumes, now printed in a smaller format; new pulls were taken from the plates, and these were bound with many of the large-format plates folded into the new, reduced dimensions. - A splendid, clean copy, complete with all the plates. An incomplete copy of the second edition of the Description de l'Egypte sold at Sotheby's for £68,750 in 2016. Blackmer 526. Gay 1999. Brunet II, 617. Graesse II, 366. Cf. Monglond VIII, 268-343 (for the first edition). Nissen, BBI 2234. Nissen, ZBI 4608. Heritage Library, Islamic Treasures, s. v. "Art" (illustration).

Inlibris · Wien, AT185.000,00 €

[Royal Geographical Society].MareMagnum

The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. London, John Murray, 1831-1880[-1881].

56 volumes (vols. I-L in 51 volumes and 5 volumes of indices). Contemporary red/purple half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spines gilt. (With:) Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. London: Edward Stanford, 1857-1878. Vols. I-XXII. Contemporary red/purple half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spines gilt. (And:) Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography. London: Edward Stanford, 1879-1892. Vols. I-XIV. Title to first volume torn and laid down, map and facing p. 664 of text damaged. Contemporary red/purple half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spines gilt. (And:) Supplementary Papers of the Royal Geographical Society. London: John Murray, 1886-1890. Vols. I-IV. Contemporary red/purple half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spines gilt. (And:) The Geographical Journal including the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. London: R.G.S., 1893-1948. Vols. I-CXII only (in 109 volumes). Vols. 1-28: contemporary red/purple half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spines gilt; vols. 29-112: original blue cloth, or contemporary cloth, gilt. Institutional bookplates to some pastedowns; blindstamps to some title-pages; ink stamps to some plates and maps. Complete set of all periodical publications of the Royal Geographical Society 1831 through 1948, comprising 203 volumes with thousands of plates and maps, many folding. - Founded in 1830, the Royal Geographical Society spearheaded efforts to accurately map and describe every corner of the known world. As lesser-known regions of the globe such as Africa and the Middle East began to emerge as major centres of global trade in the 19th century, the Society funded thousands of European expeditions to these areas in an effort to promote British commercial and scientific interests. Explorers of the Arabian Peninsula such as Henry St. John Philby (aka "Sheikh Abdullah"), Percy Cox, Theodore Bent, Gertrude Bell, Wilfred Thesiger (aka "Mubarak bin London"), and Bertram Thomas all reported directly to the Royal Geographical Society, and their accounts, often with accompanying maps, contributed enormously to the western interest in the economy and geography of these regions. Macro's "Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula" - the only major attempt to date to itemize the most important publications on the Arab World - draws heavily on the papers published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, especially for 19th century descriptions of the Arabian Gulf and its inhabitants. - Collected here is the entire run of publications issued by the Royal Geographical Society up to the mid-20th century - a full 203 volumes containing thousands of seminal articles, plates, and maps chronicling the modern mapping of the world. Its importance for the Arabian Peninsula is well-reflected in Macro's bibliography. Wilson's 1833 "Memorandum Respecting the Pearl Fisheries in the Persian Gulf", James Wellsted's "Observations on the Coast of Arabia between Rás Mohammed and Jiddah" (1836), and Felix Haig's "Memoirs of the Southeast Coast of Arabia" (1839) are among the earliest reports on those regions. Georg Wallin delivered a valuable report on the Hajj to the Society in 1854 in his "Narrative of a Journey from Cairo to Medina and Mecca"; William Palgrave is today regarded as one of the most important European explorers of the Peninsula, and his "Observations made in Central, Eastern and Southern Arabia, 1862-3" is found in the 1864 volume of the Journal. A lesser-known figure is Lewis Pelly, who in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (1863) delivered a remarkably prescient lecture, "On the Geographical Capabilities of the Persian Gulf as an Area of Trade" - highlighting the future importance of the tribes and territories of the Gulf as global commercial centres, from Kuwait down to the coasts mainly controlled by "Arab pirates". He also contributed "A Visit to the Wahabee Capital, Central Arabia" (1865) - a fascinating, early account of Riyadh. - The 1890s saw a spurt of accounts of the Gulf in the Journal by Theodore Bent including "The Bahrein Islands, in the Persian Gulf" (1890), "Expedition to the Hadhramaut" (1894), and "Exploration of the Frankincense Country, Southern Arabia" (1895). Also of note was an important study of the historical importance of Gulf ports such as Bahrain, discussed in Arthur Stiffe's 1897 article "Ancient Trading Centres of the Persian Gulf". From this point on contributions on the Peninsula become too numerous to list: among them are Frank Clemow's "A Visit to the Rock-Tombs of Medain Salih and the Southern Section of the Hejaz Railway" (1913); Sir Percy Cox's "Overland Journey to Maskat from the Persian Gulf" (1902) and his fascinating account of Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, "The Wahabi King" (1928); Gertrude Bell's "A Journey in Northern Arabia" (1914); Lees's "The Physical Geography of Southeastern Arabia" (1928); Holt's "The Future of the North Arabian Desert" (1923); Harry St. John Philby's "Account of Explorations in the Great South Desert of Arabia" (1933); Cheesman's description of the Arabian coastline between Qatar and Bahrain, "From Oqair [Al Uqair] to the ruins of Salwa" (1923); Bertram Thomas's "A Journey into the Rub' al-Khali" (1931) and "The Southeastern Borderlands of the Rub' al-Khali" (1929); Lees's "The Physical Geography of Southeastern Arabia" (1928); and Cochrane's early aerial surveys of Southern Arabia ("Air Reconaissance of the Hadhramaut", 1931). We also find several papers by R. E. Leachman - "the second Lawrence", murdered in Iraq in 1920 - including his "Journey Across Arabia" (1913) and "A Journey through Central Arabia" (1914). Wilfred Thesiger, who drew attention to the borderlands between present day UAE and Oman, contributed "A New Journey in Southern Arabia" (1946); "Journey through the Tihama, the Asir and the Hijaz Mountains" (1948); and "Across the Empty Quarter" (1948) to the Journal, and we also find K. C. Jordan's "adjustments" to Thesiger's map of Southeastern Arabia in Vol. 111 (1948).

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Karabisi an-Nisaburi, Abu'l Muzaffar Jamal al-Islam As'ad ibn Muhammad ibn Husayn al-.MareMagnum

Kitab al-furuq [The Book of Legal Distinctions]. Egypt or Syria, [20 Oct. 1173 CE] = 11 Rabi' al-awwal 569 H.

4to (180 x 260 mm). Arabic manuscript on oriental paper. 190 leaves. 20 lines of unvocalized black naskh in black and occasional red ink. Numbering of quires partially preserved in the upper left corner, foliation and part of the claims subsequent to the copy, numerous marginal glosses. Later coloured paper boards with leather spine and fore-edge flap. The earliest surviving textual witness, copied during the author's lifetime from his lost autograph, of what is the first and still the most popular Hanafi text on legal distinctions: the "Kitab al-furuq" by Abu al-Muzaffar As'ad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Nisaburi al-Karabisi al-Hanafi (d. 1174/75). Composed in the 6th century AH, most likely in Samarkand, where the author was living at the time (cf. Saba, pp. 71, 204), this is the only text on furuq (legal distinctions) to have been composed in that century and is also important as the first work on the subject in the Hanafi Madhhab. Several manuscripts of it are preserved (Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, 292 fiqh hanafi, undated; Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, 293 fiqh hanafi, dated 622 H [1224/25 CE]; Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Fatih 2039, dated 776 H [1374/75 CE]; Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Carullah 821, 1007 H [1598/99 CE]). - The present manuscript is of major importance as the oldest surviving manuscript of this text. The colophon provides the date of completion of the copy, Sunday, 11th of the month of Rabi I 569 H (20 October 1173), as well as the name of the copyist, Muhammad b. Hibatallah b. Muhammad b. Hibatallah b. Ahmad b. Abi Jarada. The colophon further states that the copyist prepared the manuscript for his personal use by collating the text (balagha) against the autograph, which is not preserved for us. - The scribe can be identified as a calligrapher who belonged to a powerful family of Aleppine intellectuals, the Banu'l-Abi Jarada, a Sunni family of the Hanafi rite (cf. James, p. 354). While no other manuscript in his hand is known to survive, he is referenced in the oldest dated manuscript of al-Hariri's "Maqamat". This codex, which bears an ijaza of al-Hariri dated Sha'ban 504 H (February 1111 CE), belonged to his first cousin, the famous historian and jurist, Kamal al-Din Abu 'Umar b. Ahmad b. Abi Jarada, known as Ibn al-'Adim. A reading mark dated 17 Jumada II 604 H (8 January 1208 CE) attests to the presence of our scribe in Aleppo and to his involvement in the literate circles of the time (on the subject of the manuscript and the reading mark, see MacKay, p. 22). He is later traced in Süleyman Müstakimzade's biographical dictionary of calligraphers, which states that Muhammad b. Hibatallah Abi Jarada was known to work in the manner of the great calligrapher Ibn al-Bawwab and copied an entire Qur'an during each month of Ramadan (Tuhfe-i hattatin [Istanbul, 1928], p. 464). He is said to have died in 628 H (1230/31 CE) at the age of 82. - Binding rubbed and chipped; sewing loosened. Restored in the 19th century, notably the first leaf, with several remarginings and an added table of contents. Provenance: from the collection of Paul Lebaudy (1858-1937), with the bookplate of his library at the Château de Rosny "La Solitude". The Château de Rosny is the former property of the Duchess of Berry. GAL I, 375 (464) & S I, 642. Cf. Elias G. Saba, Harmonizing Similarities. A History of Distinctions Literature in Islamic Law (Berlin, 2009). David James, "Qur'ans and Calligraphers of the Ayyubids and Zangids", in: Robert Hillenbrand and Sylvia Auld (eds.), Ayyubid Jerusalem. The Holy City in Context, 1187-1250 (London 2009). Pierre MacKay, "Certificates of Transmission on a Manuscript of the Maqamat of Hariri (MS. Cairo, Adab 105)", in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society NS 61, no. 4 (1971).

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Ali ibn al-Abbas al-Majusi.MareMagnum

Kitab Kamil as-Sina'a at-Tabbaiya [The Complete Book of Medical Art]. [Safavid Persia, [1582-1584 CE] = 990-991 H.

4to (180 × 240 mm). Arabic manuscript on cream paper. Two books, each with 10 chapters or Maqalahs, bound in one volume. (614) leaves, lacking one leaf from Book 2 (Maqalah 8, Bab 23) and another leaf from Book 2 (Maqalah 10, Bab 23) replaced in 19th century manuscript facsimile. 21 lines, per extensum, written in black naskh, chapter headings and important sections in red, catchwords throughout, each of the 20 chapters with an index of the ‘bab’ within and each with a separate colophon. Later brown lacquered leather over pasteboards, faintly pressed central medallions to covers, rebacked. One of the few existing complete copies of this medical milestone. Exceptionally rare: a fundamental medical work from the Golden Age of Islamic scholarship, preceding and influencing Avicenna's Qanun. Monumentally influential not only in Islamic medicine, this work even had profound impact in the West. It was first translated into Latin by Constantinus Africanus in the 11th century for use as a primary text at Salerno's medical school, and then again in 1127 by Stephen of Antioch. By the 14th century knowledge of the work was so widespread that Al-Majusi is mentioned as one of antiquity's great medical scholars in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. - The text is divided into two distinct books, each of which comprise ten "maqalas" (sections), subdivided into "babs" (chapters). The first section deals with the theory of medicine, including anatomical structures and they body's physiology; the second examines the practical treatment of medicine, the application of medical treatments and surgery. Indeed, this is the earliest known Arabic medical work to provide detailed instructions on surgical procedure. - Ali ibn al-Abbas al-Majusi was a 10th century Persian physician and psychologist, known in the Latin tradition as "Hali Abbas". Born in Ahvaz in southwest Persia, he was perhaps the most celebrated physician in the Eastern Caliphate of the Buwayhid dynasty, becoming physician royal to Emir 'Abdul al-Daula Fana Khusraw (reigned 949-983). The present treatise was compiled under the patronage of Emir Khusraw and is therefore also known as "Al-Malikiyya" ("The Royal Book"). Emir Khusraw founded a hospital in Shiraz and the al-Adudi Hospital in Baghdad to show his support for medical science, and Al-Majusi probably worked at the latter around 981 CE, where he must have composed this, his chief work. He is thought to have died in either 990 or 1010 CE. - The manuscript was produced for a wealthy and important patron in 16th century Persia, written on fine paper by a single scribe who names himself as Salam'ullah bin Habib'ullah bin Muhammad in colophons at the end of the various sections. Many of these colophons also record the date of their completion, showing that the entire codex took two years to produce. - Complete manuscript copies of this text are exceptionally rare: its vast encyclopedic nature made it an expensive commodity in the Middle Ages, and its sheer size usually necessitated it to span several volumes. The present example appears to have been bound as two separate books at the time of copying before being joined together in a single large volume in the 19th century. - Edges a little scuffed; some very minor marginal staining to a few sections, occasional light mottling. A few outer edges repaired (only affecting the text of two leaves). Overall a very clean and attractive specimen. Provenance: sold at Sotheby’s, Arts of the Islamic World sale, 23 October 2019, lot 119 (described without mention of the facsimile leaves).

Inlibris · Wien, AT175.000,00 €

Balbi, Gasparo.MareMagnum

Viaggio dell'Indie Orientali. Venice, Camillo Borgominieri, 1590.

8vo. (16), 149 ff. (misnumbered as 159), (1) p., (23) ff., with woodcut diagram (f. 144), woodcut headpieces and initials. Bound in 19th c. polished tan calf, gilt spine, gilt borders to covers, gilt turn-ins, marbled pastedowns, red edges, silk ribbon bookmark, stamped by binder "Dupré" on front flyleaf. First edition of this important travelogue by the Venetian state jeweller and gem merchant Gasparo Balbi, detailing his nine-year voyage from Venice to the Far East between 1579 and 1588, and a work of special historical interest for its eyewitness information about the Arabian Peninsula in this early period. In this book, Balbi was "the first writer to record the place names between al-Qatif and Oman that are still in use today" (G. R. King, p. 74). His "interest in the area lay in the pearls that came from the oyster beds of which the most extensive are those in the waters around al-Bahrayn, those off the Qatar peninsula and especially those in the western waters of Abu Dhabi. Either taking his information first-hand from a local individual or using a navigator's list, Balbi recorded place-names along the coast of modern Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman" (G. King, p. 248). According to Slot, "practically none of the names of places on the coast between Qatar and Ras al Khaima occur in other sources before the end of the eighteenth century" (p. 36). The present work is also of the highest significance for including "the first European record of the Bani Yas tribe" (UAE Yearbook 2006, p. 20), the largest and most important tribe of the Arabian Peninsula, from which emerged both the Al Nahyan and the Al Maktoum dynasties, today's ruling families of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. - Balbi travelled extensively in the Arabian Peninsula in search of precious stones. He knew "the waters off the Abu Dhabi coast as the Sea of Qatar and mentions the following places now in UAE territory: Daas (Das), Emegorcenon (Qarnein), Anzevi (Azanah), Zerecho (Zirkuh), Delmephialmas (Dalma), Sirbeniast (Sir Bani Yas), Aldane (Dhanna), Cherizan (identified as Khor Qirqishan, just off Abu Dhabi island), Dibei (Dubai), Sarba (Sharjah), Agiman (Ajman), Emelgovien (Umm al-Quwain), Rasa-elchime (Ras al Khaimah), Sircorcor (Khor al-Khuwair), Debe (Dibba), Chorf (Khor Fakkan) and Chelb (Kalba)" (G. R. King, UAE: A New Perspective, 74). From Venice Balbi sailed for Aleppo, proceeding to Bir and from there overland to Baghdad, descending the Tigris to Basra, where he embarked for India. The "Viaggio dell'Indie Orientali" proved to be the most widely read source of information about India throughout the next century. In the tradition of mercantile guidebooks, such as the 14th century "Practica della mercatura" compiled by Pegolotti, this is one of the few secular travelogues to the Orient published in the 16th century. And in addition to providing the kind of practical information required by merchants trading in precious stones among other wares, Balbi, with a jeweler's eye for rarities, allows himself considerable license in recording his personal observations at exotic sights (e.g., the cave Temples of Elephanta and his enthusiasm for elephant tusks f. 100v) or in mentioning incidental occurrences along the way, such as his chance meeting in Goa with the famous embassy of Japanese legates on their way home. Balbi dates his stays to particular places in a precise manner, always gives a careful explanation of the local system of exchange (coins, weights, and measures), describes commercial routes in India in detail and even includes a monsoon calendar. Balbi also discusses Goa, Negapatam, and Pegu (Burma), the latter a source of great fascination owing to its sensational wealth and the section most frequently anthologized in travel collections. The "Viaggio dell'Indie Orientali" was reprinted in 1600 (also rare). The account was translated into Latin and equipped with illustrations in the 1606 'India' volume of the De Bry series, and a partial English translation (above all, the section on Pegu) subsequently appeared in Purchas. An Arabic translation was published in 2008, but a full English translation never appeared. - Minor rubbing and edge wear to spine and boards. Narrow upper margin, mend at f. 25, otherwise remarkably well preserved. BM-STC Italian 68. Howgego I, B7. Cordier Japonica 112. Brunet I, 618. Graesse I, 279. Kress Library of Economic Literature S 276. B. J. Slot, The Arabs of the Gulf, 1602-1784. G. King, "Delmephialmas and Sircorcor: Gasparo Balbi, Dalmâ, Julfâr and a Problem of Transliteration," Arabian Archeology and Epigraphy, vol. 17 (2006), pp. 248-252. UAE Yearbook 2006, p. 20. G. R. King, "The Coming of Islam and the Islamic Period in the UAE," in UAE: A New Perspective, I. Al-Abed & P. Hellyer (eds.), pp. 68-97. W. M. Floor, The Persian Gulf: A Political and Economic History of Five Port Cities, 1500-1730. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, I.1, 473-475. Penrose, Travel and Discovery, 198. Placido Zurla, Di Marco Polo e degli altri viaggiatori veneziani piu illustri, II, 258-265. J. Charpentier, "Cesare di Fedrici and Gasparo Balbi," Indian Antiquary LIII (1924), pp. 51-54.

Inlibris · Wien, AT150.000,00 €

Gastaldi, Giacomo.MareMagnum

Il disegno della seconda parte dell'Asia. Venice, G. Gastaldi, 1561.

Two sheets joined (470 x 740 mm to the neat line, full margins showing the plate mark, overall size 550 x 790 mm). An extraordinary example of "the first modern map of the Arabian peninsula" (Al-Ankary), by far the best copy we have ever handled: the first issue of the first edition, a strong impression on thick white paper with excellent contrast and exceptionally broad margins. "L'opera è dedicata al mecenate Johann Jakob Fugger ... a firma Giacomo di Castaldi Piamonetse Cosmographo in Venetia" (Bifolco I, 380 for the first state of three). - Still the most sought-after map of the region, Gastaldi's two page wall-map served as a model for all further mapping of the peninsula until the 19th century. Gastaldi is regarded as "the most important 16th century Italian cartographer. His maps are very rare, as they were issued separately to order and were not part of an atlas" (Al-Qasimi, 1st ed., p. 23). Gastaldi used various sources including Portolan charts of the region drawn by the 16th-century Portuguese explorers. Many details, such as the coastline of the Arabian Gulf, certain coastal towns, or the peninsula of Qatar, are mapped and named for the first time. It is the most valuable of the early maps of the region. "Although the shape of the peninsula is distorted by modern standards, the Qatar peninsula and Bahrain are both shown - details that are missing on some maps produced up to almost 300 years later" (Stuart McMinn Catalogue). - The map covers the modern geographical areas of Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, part of Iraq and Iran, Pakistan and the west coast of India. The travels of Marco Polo, published in Ramusio's "Navigationi et viaggi", heavily influenced Gastaldi's geography of this map, which is considered far superior to all previous maps of Asia. Gastaldi was "cosmographer to the Venetian Republic, then a powerhouse of commerce and trade. He sought the most up to date geographical information available, and became one of the greatest cartographers of the 16th century" (Burden). - Old foliation in brown ink to the upper right margin. Spotless and with temoins on the right outer edge. An exceptionally fine example. Bifolco, I, 380f. Tibbetts 28. Karrow 30/91. Nordenskiold II, 130, 61. Couto/Bacqué-Grammont/Taleghani, Atlas Historique du Golfe Persique (2006), p. 132, no. 29 and p. 152. Tooley, Maps in Italian Atlases of the 16th Century, 54. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi (2nd ed.), p. 26 with 2 figs. Tooley, Dictionary II, 143.

Inlibris · Wien, AT150.000,00 €

Varthema, Lodovico di.MareMagnum

Die Ritterliche unnd Lobwirdige Reyß [...] sagend von den Landen Egypto, Syria, von beiden Arabia, Persia, India, und Ethiopia, von deren gstalt, sitten, Leben, Pollicey, Glauben unnd Ceremonien [...]. (Frankfurt/Main, Hermann Gülfferich), 1548.

4to. 220 unnumbered pp. Title-page and title woodcut printed in red and black; full-page woodcut on reverse of title-page and 44 woodcuts in the text by Jörg Breu the elder. Bound with eight contemporary pamphlets. Contemporary blindstamped leather over wooden boards. All edges red. Remains of two clasps. Sixth or seventh, still early German edition of Ludovico di Varthema's famous travels to Arabia, Persia, and India: the highly important and adventurous narrative containing the first printed eyewitness account of any place in today's United Arab Emirates. On his return journey from Mecca (which he was the first Westerner to describe), Varthema visited Ras al-Khaimah ("Giulfar") and portrayed the city as "most excellent and abounding in everything", with "a good seaport", and whose inhabitants are "all Muslims". While Montalboddo's famous anthology of discoveries, printed in 1507, contained the first printed reference to the Arabian Gulf region, it was Varthema's work, published only three years later, that offered the first actual report from the region by a Western traveller who had visited the coast. All early editions of Varthema’s account are exceedingly rare (even the 2013 Hajj exhibition at the MIA, Doha, only featured the 1655 reprint; cf. below). - Varthema, a gentleman adventurer and soldier from Bologna, left Venice at the end of 1502. In 1503 he reached Alexandria and ascended the Nile to Cairo, continuing to Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where, adopting Islam and taking the name of Yunas, he joined a Mameluke escort of a Hajj caravan and began the pilgrimage to Mecca. Varthema was amazed by what he observed: "Truly I never saw so many people collected in one spot as during the twenty days I remained there", he begins, and arriving at the Great Mosque, continues, "it would not be possible to describe the sweetness and the fragrances which are smelt within this temple." Thanks to his knowledge of Arabic and Islam, Varthema was able to appreciate the local culture of the places he visited. Impressed and fascinated, he describes not only rites and rituals, but also social, geographical, and day-to-day details. "I determined, personally, and with my own eyes", he declares in the prefatory dedication, "to ascertain the situation of places, the qualities of peoples [...] of Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Felix, Persia, India, and Ethiopia, remembering well that the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than ten hear-says." His good fortune did not continue unabated, however: after embarking at Jidda and sailing to Aden, he was denounced as a Christian spy and imprisoned. He secured his release and proceeded on an extensive tour of southwest Arabia. Stopping in Sanaa and Zebid as well as a number of smaller cities, he describes the people, the markets and trade, the kind of fruits and animals that are plentiful in the vicinity, and any historical or cultural information he deems noteworthy. Returning to Aden, and after a brief stop in Ethiopia, he set sail for India. In addition to visiting Persia, Varthema explored the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, including a stay at Calicut at the beginning of 1505. He also purports to have made extensive travels around the Malay peninsula and the Moluccas. Returning to Calicut in August 1505, he took employment with the Portuguese at Cochin and, in 1508, made his way back to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. - First published in 1510, Varthema's account became an immediate bestseller. In addition to his fascinating account of Egypt, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and the holy Muslim cities, "Varthema brought into European literature an appreciation of the areas east of India [...] which it had previously not received from the sea-travelers and which confirmed by firsthand observations many of the statements made earlier by Marco Polo and the writers of antiquity" (Lach, I. i. 166). "Varthema was a real traveller. His reports on the social and political conditions of the various lands he visited are reliable as being gathered from personal contact with places and peoples. His account of the overland trade is of great value in that we are made to see it before it had begun to give way to the all-seas route. He even heard of a southern continent and of a region of intense cold and very short days, being the first European probably after Marco Polo to bring back the rumor of Terra Australis" (Cox I, 260). - Bound at the end of the volume are eight rare contemporary pamphlets, including two concerned with the Ottoman wars, two others so rare that they are bibliographically unrecorded (a full list with references is available upon request). Binding is mildly rubbed and bumped; interior shows slight browning and fingerstaining with occasional edge damage. Pastedown has ownership and bookplate of the Bildhausen Cistercians, dissolved in 1803. VD 16, ZV 15159 (BSB copy lost). IA 113.553 (s. v. "Barthema", citing 212 pp. only: no more than six copies, all in Germany). Goedeke I, 379, 17, 7. Cf. Röhricht no. 574, p. 164; Cordier Indosinica I, 103; Röttinger 115 (all for Gülfferich's 1549 ed.). Cf. exhibition cat. "Hajj - The Journey Through Art" (Doha 2013), p. 90 (1655 Dutch ed. only). Blackmer 1719. Gay 140 (a 1556 Frankfurt ed). Cox I, 260. Macro 2239 (other eds.). Carter, Sea of Pearls, p. 68 (1520 ed.). Boies Penrose, p. 28-32. Not in Atabey, BM, or Adams.

Inlibris · Wien, AT150.000,00 €

Ibn al-Haytham, Abu 'Ali al-Hasan (Alhazen).MareMagnum

[Kitab al-Manazir, latine]. Opticae thesaurus. Alhazeni Arabis libri septem, nunc primum editi. Eiusdem liber de crepusculis & Nubium ascensionibus. Item Vitellonis Thuringopoloni libri X [...]. (Ed. F. Risner). Basel, Eusebius Episcopius & haeredes Nicolai Episcopii, (August) 1572.

Folio (235 x 328 mm). 2 parts in 1 vol. (6) pp., 1 blank leaf, 288 pp. (8), 474, (2) pp. With 2 different woodcut printer's devices on title-page and colophon, half-page woodcut on reverse of title-page (repeated on half-title of pt. 2), and numerous diagrams in the text. Contemporary full limp vellum binding with later ink spine label (wants ties). First edition of "the most important work of its kind in Arabic literature" (cf. Poggendorf), this copy inscribed by the German humanist Wilhelm Xylander (1532-76), sometime rector of Heidelberg University. - Ibn al-Haytham (965-c. 1040), known as Alhazen in the Western tradition, has been hailed as "the greatest Muslim physicist and one of the greatest students of optics of all times [...] The Latin translation [...] exerted a great influence upon Western science. It showed a great progress in experimental method. [Alhazen's book contains] research in catoptrics, [a] study of atmospheric refraction, [a] better description of the eye, and better understanding of vision [as well as an] attempt to explain binocular vision [and the] earliest use of the camera obscura" (Sarton). "This combined edition served as the standard reference work on optics well into the 17th century, influencing scientists such as Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, and Descartes" (Norman). - "The Arab physicist Alhazen preserved for us all that was known by the ancients in the field of optics and added some contributions of his own. His book remained a standard authority thru the 1600s. He understood that light emanated spherically from a point and greatly improved on Ptolemy's uncertain rule for refraction which, he showed, held true only for small angles. He covered many cases of reflection and refraction and his explanation of the structure and function of the eye was followed for 600 years" (Dibner). - The 'Liber de crepusculis', the work on dawn and twilight included in Risner's 'Opticae thesaurus' and attributed to Alhazen, is actually the work of his contemporary Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Mu'adh al-Jayyani (cf. Norman; DSB, p. 208). The optical study by the Polish scholar Witelo, likewise here included, is "a massive work that relies extensively on Alhazen [and] offers an analysis of reflection that was not surpassed until the 17th century" (Norman). - An old dampstain throughout, almost entirely confined to the outer and lower margins. Endpapers restored with old material. Upper corner of the title-page shows old blind-stamped rosette device and early calculations done in ink. 20th century bookplate to front pastedown. From the library of the French industrialist and patron Pierre Bergé (1930-2017); acquired from the sale of his estate. VD 16, H 693 (H 692, V 1761). Adams A 745. BM-STC 383. Dibner 138. Norman 1027. Honeyman I, 73. DSB VI, 205 & XIV, 461. GAL I, 470. Poggendorf I, 31. Duncan 113. Sarton I, 721. Carmody p. 140. Thorndike/Kibre 803, 1208. Vagnetti D62. BNHCat A 241. IA 103.705. Brunet I, 180. Arabick Roots Doha AR79. Collection Nachet (1929), 50 (this copy).

Inlibris · Wien, AT135.000,00 €

[Ibn Kammuna, Jewish physician and philosopher (1215-1284)].MareMagnum

Sharh al-talwiyyât al-lawhiyya wa al-'ursîyya li-l-Suhrawardî [Explanations and Commentary on Sohrawardi's Allusions]. No place, [1316 CE =] 716 H.

4to (175 x 244 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. 2 volumes. 117 pp. 68 pp. 27 lines to the page, written in dark brown ink on buff paper, catchwords in red, some diagrams, dated at the end of each book. Modern brown morocco bindings with fore-edge flap. Rare and early manuscript of Ibn Kammuna's principal work, this copy written less than fifty years after the commentary, which made its author famous, was completed in 1268. - Ibn Kammuna, who lived in Baghdad in the 13th century, is considered one of the most important Jewish philosophers after his Andalusian colleague Moses ibn Maimon (Maimonides, d. 1204) and is known to have corresponded with the illustrious polymath Nasir al-Din Tusi (d. 1274). Ibn Kammuna experienced the overthrow of Abbasid power by Mongol troops in 1258. Following this event, many faiths cohabited in Baghdad until the new power converted to Islam. It is at the heart of this multi-confessional society that Ibn Kammûna wrote most of his work. - The "Sharh al-Talwiyyat" constitutes one of the major contributions to the work of Sohrawardi (d. 1191), who had died in Aleppo less than eighty years before the commentary was written. Several texts suggest that Ibn Kammuna would have stayed in Aleppo, around 1250, to collect direct sources from Sohrawardi's students. Thus, Ibn Kammuna played a key role in the dissemination of the thought of Sohrawardi and the illuminative philosophy ("Ishrâq" in Arabic) that he initiated (cf. Henri Corbin, 1945). - Since Corbin's work, the "Sharh al-Talwiyyat" has been the subject of numerous studies seeking to establish a reference edition. Three relevant editions exist: those of S. Mûsawî (2003), H. Ziai and A. Alwishah (2002, dealing only with parts I and II), and of N. Habibi (2009). The three parts of this work are devoted respectively to logic, the natural sciences, and theology. According to the census established by John Lameer, there are only about fifty copies of "Sharh al-Talwihat" by Ibn Kammuna, taking into account the complete and incomplete copies. Our manuscript, dating from 716 H (1316 CE), is said to be the tenth oldest known copy of Ibn Kammuna's Commentary on the work of Suhrawardi. This set of two volumes comprises parts 2 and 3, while the volume on logic is not present. - Ibn Kammuna wrote extensively on theology, philosophy and psychology. His work is based on the knowledge of ancient Greek philosophers, on the study of the writings of Avicenna and Sohrawardi, as well as on the works of Judah Halevi and Maimonides. He is notably the author of "Tanqih al-abhath lil-milal al-thalath" (Critical Study on the Three Monotheistic Religions), and of "al-Jadid fi'l-hikma" (The New Wisdom), a discussion of the philosophy and science of the 13th century. His most significant contribution to the history of philosophy remains his present detailed commentary on Sohrawardi's "Al-Talwihat". Reza Pourjavadi & Sabine Schmidtke, A Jewish Philosopher of Baghdad. 'Izz al-Dawla Ibn Kammuna (d. 683/1284) and His Writings. Leiden and Boston, 2006 (= Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies, vol. 65). Joep Lameer, "Ibn Kammuna's Commentary on Suhrawardi's Talwihat. Three Editions", Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 3 (2012), pp. 154-184.

Inlibris · Wien, AT125.000,00 €

[Medicea Press].MareMagnum

Alphabetum Arabicum [and three other publications from the Medici Oriental Press]. Rome, Typographia Medicea, 1592.

4to (170 x 232 mm). 64 pp. With woodcut device on title-page. - (Bound with) II: [I'tiqad alamarah ...]. Brevis orthodoxae fidei professio, quae ex praescripto Sanctae Sedis Apostolicae ab Orientalibus ad Sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae unitatem venientibus facienda proponitur. Ibid., 1595. (28) pp., 2 bl. ff. With 2 half-page woodcuts and woodcut device at the end. - (Bound with) III: Ibn Ajurrum, Muhammad ibn Muhammad al Sinhaji. [Kitab al-Ajurrumiyyah]. [Ibid., 1592]. (24) pp. Arabic text throughout, printed in red and black. - (Bound with) IV: Ibn al-Hajib, 'Uthman ibn-'Umar. [Kafiya li-Ibn al-Hajib]. [Ibid., 1592]. (96) pp. Arabic text throughout, printed in red and black. Contemporary full vellum with traces of a handwritten spine title. A fine sammelband containing no fewer than four extremely rare publications from the Medicea Oriental Press, the first printing press in Europe dedicated to printing Arabic typeface. It was founded in Rome in 1584 under the direction of Giabattista Raimondi (1536-1614) and the patronage of Pope Gregory XIII. For the Arabic types, Raimondi commissioned the famous typefounder Robert Granjon. Cutting the Arabic typefaces took a long time, and the first book to bear its imprint did not appear until 1591. Until 1610 Raimondi printed only eight works with Granjon's types. - Contains individually: - I. Alphabetum Arabicum (1592). A prospectus of the Medicea's Arabic typefaces - "a masterpiece of design which not only displays Granjon's beautiful types, but contains a careful Latin Essay on the Arabic writing system" (Lunde, Arabic and the art of printing, in "Aramco World" 1981). - II. Brevis orthodoxae fidei professio (1595). Maronite confession of faith, intended for Eastern Christians who claimed to be united with the Catholic Church. Arabic and Latin parallel text on opposite pages. The woodcuts in the text are after Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630). - III. Kitab al-Ajurrumiyyah (1592). Editio princeps of a short Arabic grammar by the 14th c. scholar Muhammad al-Sanhaji from Fez (Morocco). There are also copies with a Latin title and imprint, "Grammatica Arabica in compendium redacta, quae vocatur Giarrumia". - IV. Kafiya (1592). "Editio princeps of this popular short syntax of the Arabic language, written in the 13th century by the Arabian grammarian Uthman Ibn Umar, known as Ibn al-Hajib (1175-1249). Two centuries later an Oriental printed edition was published in Istanbul (1786), but in the meantime this edition, printed in Arabic (30 point) throughout, could well have passed for a manuscript" (Smitskamp). There are also copies with a Latin title and imprint, "Grammatica arabica dicta Caphiah, auctore filio Alhagiabi". - Binding a little stained; wants ties. Later pastedowns. Occasional slight toning and some minor marginal soiling. "Kafiya" shows some dampstaining to upper edge of a1 and a4, with light offsetting of red Arabic print in the lower margin of d1v. In general, excellent, wide-margined copies throughout. Provenance: Christiaan Druve (d. 1616), abbot of the Sint-Niklaas Abbey in Veurne, with his contemporary ownership entry "Christianus Druvaeus Abb. S. Nicol. Fur. Recogita" on the title-page of the Alphabetum. I. Edit 16, CNCE 1227. Schnurrer 41. Adams A 780. BM-STC Italian 36. OCLC 47816774. Lunde, Paul, "Arabic and the Art of Printing", in: Aramco World 32/2 (1981) (mit Abb.). J. Balagna, L'imprimerie arabe en occident (Paris 1984), p. 135. Cat. Le Livre et le Liban (mentioned p. 190; no copy in the catalogue). Not in Smitskamp (PO) or Fück. - II. Edit 16, CNCE 7571. Zenker 1571. Not in Adams. - III. Edit 16, CNCE 65819. Schnurrer 43. Adams M 1891. GAL S II, p. 332. - IV. Edit 16, CNCE 44392. Schnurrer 42 Adams U 102. GAL I, p. 303. Smitskamp (PO) 30.

Inlibris · Wien, AT125.000,00 €

Ibn Sina (Avicenna).MareMagnum

[Al Qanun - latine]. Canon medicinae. Lyon, Jean Trechsel & Johann Klein, 24. XII. 1498.

Folio (ca. 31 x 42 cm). 2 vols. 379 ff. with 1 diagrammatic woodcut. 357 ff. Contemporary full calf over wooden boards on four raised double bands, blind- and giltstamped, one volume with 2 brass clasps (and remnants on the other volume). Two complete volumes, in their contemporary Renaissance bindings, of the four-volume Latin edition of Avicenna's magnum opus. Gerard de Cremona's widely received translation was here edited by Jacques Ponceau with the commentaries of Jacobus de Partibus and Johannes Lascaris. - The principal writing of Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdullah ibn Sina (ca. 980-1037), the "Qanun" is the most authoritative medical text in the Islamic world. Written in Arabic, it was widely translated throughout the Middle Ages and formed the basis of medical training in the West as late as the mid-17th century. Through this encyclopedic work, the author exerted "perhaps a wider influence in the eastern and western hemispheres than any other Islamic thinker" (PMM). "The 'Qanun' [...] contains some of the most illuminating thoughts pertaining to distinction of mediastinitis from pleurisy; contagious nature of phthisis; distribution of diseases by water and soil; careful description of skin troubles; of sexual diseases and perversions; of nervous ailments" (Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science). "[Avicenna's] Canon is one of the most famous medical texts ever written, a complete exposition of Galenism. Neuburger says: 'It stands for the epitome of all precedent development, the final codification of all Graeco-Arabic medicine'. It dominated the medical schools of Europe and Asia for five centuries" (Garrison/M. 43). - The present two volumes comprise the complete Third Book, fen 1-12 and 13-22, and thus cover the principal part of the Qanun: special pathology and therapy "a capite ad calces" (from head to toe), including ailments of the ear, nose, and throat, as well as obstetrics. Volumes 1 and 4 (not present here) comprised books I (452 ff.) and book IV, fen 1 (142 ff.); books II and V were not part of this edition. - Both volumes lack merely the final blank leaf, otherwise complete with ample margins showing occasional deckle edges. Some light browning, some waterstaining to edges (mainly towards end of vol. 2), otherwise very little staining; some worming mostly confined to blank margins. A few contemporary ms. annotations. Both volumes in their original, prettily blind- and gilt-tooled brown leather bindings over wooden boards. - Provenance: traces of removed bookplates on pastedowns. According to a pencil note on the inside front cover of the first volume, the set was removed from the Fritzlar Cathedral Library, parts of which were dispersed in 1724 and in 1803. Later sold at Venator (Cologne), sale 23/24 (1962), lot 15 (with illustration plate IV); old sales notice pasted to inside front cover of first volume. H 2214. GW 3127. Goff A-1428. BMC VIII, 302. Proctor 8616. BSB-Ink A 964. IGI 1125 u. Corr. Pell. 1668. Polain 444. Voull. Bln. 4708. Claudin IV, 88-93. Klebs 131.13. Panzer I, 553, 200. Not in Oates, Osler, Waller, or Wellcome.

Inlibris · Wien, AT125.000,00 €

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