Marco Polo.MareMagnum
4 213 résultats
4to. 3 parts in one volume. (6), 26, (16), 167, (51) pp. (8), 115, (13) pp. (4), 107, (9) pp. Letterpress title printed in red and black. With additional engraved title and engr. frontispiece to part 2 (lacking plates of Arabic characters); ornamental head bands and initials. 18th-century calf with gilt spine. All edges red. First edition. "Collated with a manuscript in the library of the Elector of Brandenburg, preface, geographical index, glossary, etc." (Lust). The gifted orientalist Andreas Müller (1630-94) compiled in a single volume this collection of travel accounts and information on China: Part I is an edition of a Berlin manuscript of Marco Polo, including comparisons with editions by Grynaeus (1532) and Ramusio (1559). Part II, often bound last, is an encyclopedia of China by Müller, listing "Chinese peculiarities" based on Chinese and oriental sources (cf. Löwendahl 153). Part III is a Latin version of "Historia orientalis" by the Armenian Hayton of Corycus (d. 1308). - According to Lach, Müller was “one of the most cosmopolitan of [...] world-conscious Europeans” of his time, although he never travelled outside of Europe. He fell out with Kircher over a linguistic issue, and when Chinese writing was described by theologians as a breach of the Second Commandment, his position in Berlin became untenable. Having resigned his position as provost of St. Nicolai in 1685, he relocated to Stettin and spent the remainder of his life with private studies. "By his own ways of publishing he much hampered the production of a bibliography of his works, which would certainly warrant scrutiny. Before his death he destroyed his manuscripts. He negotiated over the sale of his library with numerous universities, but finally, on a whim, gave away a mere 50 books to the Stargard Consistorium in 1692; most of his books and the remainder of his papers he willed to St. Mary's collegiate church in Stettin" (cf. ADB XXII, 513f.). - Some browning and spotting throughout. Still a fine copy from the library of the Ducs de Luynes at the Château de Dampierre: their bookplate reproducing the arms of Charles Marie d'Albert de Luynes (1783-1839), 7th Duc de Luynes, on pastedown; latterly in the library of Jean R. Perrette (his bookplate). VD 17, 12:108208R. Cordier (Sinica) III, 1968. Lust 288. Löwendahl 153. Morrison II, 535. Ebert 17665. Henze IV, 380. ADB XXII, 513. Brunet III, 69 & 1406 ("receuil assez recherché").
8vo. 8 pp. With woodcut title vignette. Wrappers. First (and only?) printing of the letter by the Capuchin friar Pacifico Scaliger, leader of his order's mission to Persia and Armenia, written to the Capuchin Guardian of Leghorn (dated 21 May 1627), with the two mandates received from Sultan Murad IV: the first a permit to found a hospital at Aleppo, Syria (12 April 1627); the other granting the Capuchins free passage and permission to reside and teach throughout the Ottoman Empire, wherever there are Christians (26 April 1627). - Some brownstaining; old pagination in manuscript and stamped (apparently removed from an old collection). Of special interest is the title woodcut, showing a round moon within the oriental crescent. The round moon bears a crudely drawn face, incorporating the western notion of a "man in the moon", but the heavily structured lunar surface also provides a curious counterpiece to the famous woodcuts which had appeared in Galileo's groundbreaking "Sidereus Nuncius" but eighteen years previously. - Excessively rare: a single copy in library catalogues (HAB Wolfenbüttel); no records via WorldCat or in Italian libraries via SBN. OCLC 258074666 (no holding records). HAB Wolfenbüttel shelfmark M:Gv Kapsel 7 (46).
8vo. 8 pp. With woodcut device on title page. Wrappers. An appeal, written in verse, to all religious orders and Christian laymen to take arms against the Ottomans. Apparently an early product of the Turkish-Venetian War of 1714-18, in which the new Grand Vizier Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha re-conquered Morea (the Peloponnesus) from the Venetians, who had held the peninsula since 1699. A different version (kept at the Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana in Vicenza), published by Giovanni Berno "in Venetia, Bassano, & in Verona", is dated 1715; this date of publication is also supported by the mention of Pope Clement XI (1700-21). However, the Marciana in Venice keeps an earlier publication of the same work produced for the Venetian Alessandro Cortesi, bearing the date 1663. Yet another, undated version in the Biblioteca Universitaria di Padova bears the imprint "In Venezia, per Domenico Lovisa à Rialto". No other copy with Remondini's imprint is known. - Some browning and waterstaining; old pagination in manuscript and stamped (apparently removed from an old collection).
12mo. 498, (6) pp. Title page printed in red and black. With separate engr. title page (counted in the pagination), engr. title vignette, 18 folding engr. plates and one engraving in the text. Contemporary full morocco, covers and spine gilt with giltstamped green spine label. Leading edges gilt, gilt inner dentelle, marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Beautiful French edition of Sir Paul Rycaut‘s famous Turkish chronicle: a page-for-page reprint of the - probably pirated - third edition in French, which had appeared at Amsterdam (under the imprint of Abraham Wolfgangk) in 1670. The 1714 edition, not noted in the relevant bibliographies, omits Rycaut's name, citing only that of the translator, but without the words "traduit de l'Anglois", thus falsely suggesting that the translator Briot is the author. "This work is regarded as one of the best of its kind with respect to the religious and military state of Turkey" (Cox). "[Rycaut's] most important work [...] presents an animated and, on the whole, faithful picture of Turkish manners" (DNB). "Provides an account of the society and political system of the Ottoman Empire with unprecedented thoroughness" (cf. Osterhammel, Die Entzauberung Asiens, 32). "An extremely important and influential work, which provides the fullest account of Ottoman affairs during the 17th century [...] Rycaut was appointed consul in Smyrna, where he resided for eleven years. His information on the Ottoman Empire was taken from several sources: original records, and from a Polish resident of some nineteen years at the Ottoman court" (Blackmer). The attractive engravings depict dignitaries and persons of various ranks in their costumes (several on Arabian horses), also including the illustration of a turban (in the letterpress on p. 115). A beautifully bound copy of a rare and appealingly produced edition. Provenance: removed from the library of the Talhouët family at the Château de la Lambardais in Brittany (armorial stamp to front flyleaf). OCLC 69067803. Cf. Weber II, 330f. Aboussouan 806f. Atabey 1069. Blackmer 1464. Brunet IV, 1275. Graesse VI/1, 108. Lipperheide Lb 19. Hiler 770. Howgego R 92. Cox I, 210. Not in Colas.
Large 4to. 3 vols. LXVI, 202 pp. (2), 337, (1) pp. (2), 394 pp. With 10 folding engraved plates and numerous foling tables. Contemporary calf with gilt spines. All edges red. Marbled endpapers. Only edition. - Exceptionally rare Latin translation of this history of the 1795 plague epidemic in Syrmia, first published in German as "Geschichte der Pest in Sirmien in den Jahren 1795 und 1796" by the Budapest physician Franz von Schraud (1761-1806). - Titles stamped on reverse. Hinges and extremeties professionally repaired; a good copy. Petrik III, 331. Wurzbach XXXI, 274. ADB XXXII, 453. OCLC 14833959. Cf. Lesky, Kat. der Josephin. Bibliothek, p. 596 (German ed. only).
4to (295 x 235 mm). 50 photographs of Egypt (albumen prints and cyanotypes), and approximately 40 albumen prints of Switzerland. Impressively presented series of original photographs taken at various important sites and cities in Egypt, including Giza, Thebes, Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, Esna etc. The photographs show archaeological sites like the temple of Seti I at Abydos, the precinct of Ahmen-Rah near Luxor, the avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak, the Ramesseum and the Colossi at Thebes, the temple of Khnum at Esna, the Sphinx and pyramids of Giza and many more. Other photographs show the local population, doing a wide variety of activities, such as catching crocodiles on the nile, a Luxor barber shaving the head of a sailor, or a Bedouin camp in the Libyan Desert. - The Istanbul-based Sebah studio catered to the Western European interest in the exotic "Orient" and the growing numbers of tourists visiting the Muslim world who wished to take home images of the city, ancient ruins in the surrounding area, portraits, and local people in traditional costumes. "Sebah rose to prominence because of his well-organized compositions, careful lighting, effective posing, attractive models, great attention to detail, and for the excellent print quality" (Gary Saretzky, Photo history). Jean Sebah (1876-1947) took over the studio from his father Pascal after his death and signed his productions "J. P. Sebah" on the negative, putting his initial in front of his father's. - Some spotting and fading.
Folio. (10), 148, 116, (48) pp. (pages 109, 100, 111, and 112 bound out of order). With plates, tables and 3 volvelles. 18th century panelled calf with the binding dated "1734" and with a newer, and heavily buttressed, spine added. A very good copy of this important, influential and rare-to-the-market nautical classic, being the fourth edition with "Useful Additions". - Samuel Sturmy states that he was apprenticed to a Bristol sailmaker and thereafter commanded ships sailing out of Bristol, primarily to Virginia and to the West Indies. His experiences formed the core of the work herein described, a work produced by him to provide his three brothers, his sons, and other young seamen with all of the information they would need - even if their own mathematical abilities were restricted to ordinary arithmetic. Sturmy wrote in a lively fashion, and in the sections pertaining to seamanship the usual commands and responses were set forth as a dialogue between the ship's captain and the crew, parts of which were used verbatim by Jonathan Swift in "Gulliver's Travels". It is from Sturmy's book that Dampier remembered the recipe ("receipt") for gunpowder. Sturmy's work also contains what may be one of the earliest complete explanations of the construction of a polar gnomonic chart, presenting a detailed example of a great circle route from the Lizard to the Bermudas. The Oxford Reference states: "The gnomonic chart became popular with the publication by Hugh Godfray in 1858 of two polar gnomonic charts covering the greater part of the world, one for the northern and the other for the southern hemisphere. Although it was generally believed that Godfray was the original inventor of this method of great circle sailing, it is interesting to note that a complete explanation of the construction of a polar gnomonic chart, with a detailed example of a great circle route from the Lizard to the Bermudas, appeared in Samuel Sturmey's 'Mariners' Mirror', of 1669." - A superior copy of a rare and highly notable book: an early classic of navigation, of which few copies in any edition have come to auction over the last several decades and which constitutes a critical component of any any nautical library.
Small folio (ca. 210 x 300 mm). 74 pp. Arabic manuscript in black Naskh, headings and key words in red, ruled in red (often to form tables and geometric patterns). Several diagrams, 2 ff. with circular diagrams, some ruled leaves blank. Contemporary limp leather. A theological manuscript entitled "The book of description (or attributes) of the Prophet and the Leader". - Binding a little rubbed, spine chipped. A few leaves loosened. Some light staining and finger-soiling throughout; a few ink smudges; a number of edge tears (some professionally repaired).
8vo. 71 ff. (lacking final blank). All edges sprinkled in red. Contemporary limp blue boards. Last Italian edition of the 16th century: a famous account of Islam (with a life of the Prophet Muhammad) given by a Muslim convert to Christianity, first published in Spanish in 1515 and frequently reprinted and translated. The author gives his former name only as Alfaqui ibn Abdallah from Játiva near Valencia in Spain; he flourished 1487-1515. - Some browning and brownstaining throughout due to paper; a few pages waterstained; old ink notes to title page (some ink corrosion). Rare; only two copies in WorldCat (Paris-BnF and Mazarine); four in Italy (Venice, Prato, Modena, Messina); none in the U.S. Edit 16, CNCE 1728. Chauvin XII, p. 21, no. 83. Göllner 2280. I.A. 105.567. Palau 12175 (note). OCLC 800261833.
Large 8vo. (4), 352 pp. Contemporary calf (spine rebacked). A reprint of the Roman Bible of 1671, already reissued thus by British and Foreign Bible Society in the previous year. The Society adopted this text at the suggestion of the Syrian Archbishop of Jerusalem. - Some browning and edge chipping. Binding rubbed and bumped (professionally repaired, with loss to corners). Darlow/Moule 1667. OCLC 38586842.
4to. (328) pp., final blank leaf. Title page within woodcut borders. Contemporary calf (spine rebacked). Arabic and Coptic Psalter as issued by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Arabic text reprinted from the Risius-Guadagnolo-Ecchellensi-Maracci 1671 Rome edition of the Arabic Bible. The Coptic may be a reprint of the 1744 Rome Coptic-Arabic Psalter edited by Raphael Tuki (cf. Roper/Tait, Coptic Typography, in: Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution [2002], p. 119). - Evenly browned throughout. Punched library ownerships ("Philadelphia Divinity School") and ballpoint shelfmark; old catalogue slip and pouch inserted loosely, with bookplate of the "Library of the Protestant Episcopal Divinity School of Philadelphia". Contemporary bookseller's label (Dondey-Dupré, Paris) to front pastedown. Darlow/Moule 1673 & 3095. OCLC 123078021.
4to. (12), 282 pp. Title printed in red and black with large engraving. - (Bound with) II: Sennert, Andreas. Arabismus, h. e. praecepta arabicae linguae [...]. Wittenberg, Fincelius, 1666. (8), 166 pp. - (Bound with) III: The same. [Mi'a Matal]. Centuria proverbiorum arabicorum. Ibid., 1658. (24) pp. Contemporary vellum with ms. title to spine. I: Third, most encompassing edition of the first scientific Arabic grammar written by a European scholar. Erpenius had published his "Grammatica Arabica" in 1613, having completed it four years earlier while staying in Paris with Casaubon. A second edition appeared in 1636 - edited by Anton Deusing, a pupil of Golius - adding the fables of Lokman and Arabic proverbs earlier edited by Erpenius. The present edition was edited by Golius himself, Erpenius's successor to the chair of Arabic. Repeating Deusing's 1636 edition, it now adds a modest Arabic chresthomathy previously edited by Golius's pupil Fabricius. This copy includes the cancel-slip for two lines of text and a catchword on f. *2v. Interleaved between pp. 200 and 201 with five ms. pages by a Swedish scholar (c. 1915). - II: Second edition of Sennert's Arabic grammar, followed by a concise Arabic dictionary. - III: Only edition of this rare collection of Arabic proverbs with their Latin translations, also prepared by the German scholar Sennert (1606-89), himself a pupil of Golius and in 1640 Jakob Weller's successor as professor of oriental languages in Wittenberg. - Somewhat browned due to paper, but well-preserved altogether. Several old ownerships on flyleaf, including a note of acquisition dated Wittenberg, 1619, and the ownership of Ernst Friedrich Tobias (dated Feb. 1725). I: Smitskamp, BO 72. Schnurrer 81. Juynboll 148f. - II: Schnurrer 82 (note). VD 17, 12:130977S. OCLC 836692815. - III: VD 17, 3:313989Z. OCLC 633598572.
159 x 108 cm (conjoined sheets), in hand colour. Scale ca. 1:12,000,000. A magnificent coloured wall map, enclosed within historiated borders showing topographical vignettes, printed on four conjoined sheets with additional running title above and engraved text providing geographical and political information to the sides, all on additional sheets. While it is a map of Africa, it also shows the Arabian Peninsula in its entirety. - The cartographer Nicolas de Fer (1646-1720), son of a Parisian engraver specialising in the colouring and selling of maps, maintained a good relationship with the Academy of Sciences and was Geographer Royal to the Dauphin and the King of Spain. Nevertheless, his productions were not aimed at a university-educated audience, and his work is distinguished by easy accessibility and popularisation of geographical information rather than by scholarly precision. The present rendering of Arabia, apparently based in part on the work of Delisle, shows this posthumous publication (by de Fer's son-in-law Danet) to be a later release of a much early conception of the Middle East, outdated even in the 1740s. In particular, it omits the Sinai Peninsula included in several of de Fer's earlier efforts. "Like Delisle, De Fer had considerable prestige and influence in France and all over Europe" (Historical Atlas of the Gulf, p. 278). Among the toponyms along the coast of the Arabian Gulf are Abadan, Sur, Ahsa, Janama, Bahr, El Catif, Bischa, Borou, Godo, Vodana, Calba, Dadana, and Pinder. - Professionally repaired; some wrinkling, but preserving its impressive wall appearance. Cf. OCLC 71549733. Historical Atlas of the Persian Gulf (16th to 18th c.) 70 (1717 map). Khaled Al Ankary, The Arabian Peninsula in Old European Maps, 112 & 140.
Engraved map on two sheets, joined. 440 x 600 mm. Framed (84:67,5 cm). Rare. Based on the large mural map of Giacomo Gastaldi in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, in 1550, considered the culmination of his work on the cartography of Africa through the 1540s. (The mural was subsequently lost to overpainting.) Shows the continent with southern Europe and Arabia; large strapwork dedication cartouche to Thomaso Ravenna at lower left; compass rose centre right. Trimmed to the outer neat lines; some wear and repairs to old folds, with loss of a few letters of the dedication. Two small areas of sea supplied in pen facsimile. Faint spotting, a pale uneven wash. Tibbetts p. 47, 31. Not in Sultan bin M. Al-Qasimi, The Gulf in Historic Maps (1st or 2nd ed.).
8vo. 277, (3) pp. With engraved portrait and folding lithographed manuscript facsimile. Original printed wrappers. Early study of the Algerian rebel Abd el-Qadir, the Emir of Mascara (1807-83), published at the height of his insurrection against the French invaders. On 21 December 1847, after being denied refuge in Morocco because of French diplomatic and military pressure on its leaders, `Abd al-Qadir surrendered to General Louis de Lamoricière in exchange for the promise that he would be allowed to go to Alexandria or Acre. Two days later, his surrender was made official to the French Governor-General of Algeria, Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale. The French government refused to honour Lamoricière's promise and `Abd Al-Qadir was exiled to France. - Some brownstaining to interior. Rare. OCLC 48656095.
Folio. 32 full-page wood-engraved plates including pictorial title. Original decorative blueboards gilt, rebacked preserving spine, new endpapers. Views include Jeddah, Mocha, Cairo, etc. This work is published without text. The plates are set on a stone coloured background. A couple of the plates are signed by William Measom. The suggested publication date is taken from an inscription on the original front pastedown (bound in), and is consistent with the dates of other works illustrated by Measom. - Occasional mostly light foxing and soiling. OCLC 23070449.
4to. 4 parts in 1 volume. (8), 47, (1) pp. (38) pp. 63, (1) pp. 18 pp. With 2 title pages, the first and dedication on its verso printed in red and black, 1 botanical woodcut in text, woodcut headpiece, tailpiece and decorated initials, woodcut Chinese characters, decorations built up from cast fleurons. With diamond-head music notes, long passages in Syriac and Arabic type. - (Bound with) II: Müller, Andreas. Monumenti Sinici [...]. Berlin, Christoph Runge, 1672. Including: [drop-title:] De monumento Sinico commentarius novensilis. [drop-title:] Caput Primum. Historia lapidis. [Berlin, Georg Schultz?, 1674?]. Marbled boards (ca. 1800?). A series of works apparently printed and published together (even though the second title-page gives a different publisher and date) on various aspects of China and its culture, by the gifted orientalist Andreas Müller (1630-94). The title-page of part 1 lists seven numbered subjects for its brief observations: history, missionaries in China from the time of the Old Testament to the time of publication, Chinese emperors and other rulers, ginseng and its medicinal uses, astronomy and the calendar, geography and the relation between the names of the planets and the days of the week. Part 2 is devoted primarily to the transliteration in italic type of an extensive Chinese inscription, using special diacritical marks to indicate the tones and representing them also with Western musical notation above the text. It was a 781 "Nestorian" (East Christian) inscription that had been discovered in the 1620s and first published by Athanasius Kircher in 1667. Müller took issue with Kircher's publications on the inscription. It is followed by several shorter texts, including two pages with parallel columns giving an Aramaic text (the language of the Nestorians) in Syriac script with a Latin translation, and a phonetic rendering of the Chinese Lord's Prayer. Parts 3 and 4 contain additional commentaries on the same Nestorian inscription. - Although the title-page to part 2 is dated "1672" and names the "officina Rungiana" as publisher, all four parts appear to be printed on the same paper stock and they share at least some typographic materials. At least the supplements (which have no date or imprint) seem likely to have been printed by Schultz with part 1, and part 2 may have been as well. - The extensive use of Syriac and Arabic type gives the publication special typographic interest, and it also provides a fine example of Reinier Voskens's two largest italic types (the largest in the 6-page dedication), only about a decade after he cut them. Copies with all four parts complete are extremely rare, VD17 recording at most one. - Somewhat browned, but otherwise in good condition, with only some tiny marginal worm holes (affecting 1 letter in the imprint of the second title-page). Parts 2 and 4 each lacks a final blank leaf. A remarkable example of early oriental studies. BLC German (17th cent.) M-1471. Cordier (Sinica) 773f. (parts 2-4 only). Löwendahl 155, 161-163. Walravens, China illustrata 88 (part 1 only).
4to. 188 [i.e. 192] pp. Title printed in red and black. Modern moirée boards. First edition of "the first Sanskrit grammar to be published in Europe" (Smitskamp), produced by the Propaganda Press. The Sanskrit words are printed in Malayalam characters. With excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita ("Textus originalis libri Bhagavadam", 171-186). Paulinus à S. Bartholomaeo (J. P. Wesdin or Werdin, 1748-1806), a Discalced Carmelite from Lower Austria but active in India between 1776 and 1789, was "one of the inaugurators of Indian studies in the 18th century" (ibid.). "His many scholarly works earned him a reputation as an outstanding orientalist" (cf. Streit). "Ces différents ouvrages du P. Paulin étant recherchés, ont quelquefois été payés assez cher dans les ventes" (Brunet). - Slightly browned throughout with occasional professional repairs. A good copy in a modern, somewhat uncommonly coloured binding. Smitskamp, PO 214a (note). Vater/Jülg 332. Brunet IV, 446. Streit VI, 188. Zenker 2832. Wurzbach I, 170. OCLC 17209846.
Oblong folio (450 x 336 mm). Letterpress title page (with extensive description on the reverse) and 4 engraved plates. Contemporary blank wrappers, stored in custom-made cardboard portfolio with giltstamped cover label. First edition. A fine series of four elaborately decorated Turkish horses, based on drawings prepared in Constantinople and sent to Ridinger by Baron Gudenus. As stated in the letter from Constantinople, dated 7 March 1741 and printed on the reverse of the title page, the Ottoman dignitaries could be distinguished by the various kinds of luxurious cloths, jewels, and finery they applied to their stables. The officials would vie with each other for the most splendid equestrian adornments, often showering their animals with gold and silver, diamonds, silk, and delicate embroideries. At a state reception in 1740, the Sultan was reported to have shown a parade of 30 horses, each covered in a different kind of precious stone. Such a horse laden with ornament, led into the seraglio by a Janissary, is pictured in plate I: four ostrich feathers adorn the head (a distinction afforded only to the Sultan's personal stable), while the chest bears a splendid rosette belt. Plate II shows a rising "Divani", such as is ridden by the Grand Vizier when dressed in state, with silver chains jingling from its halter and an embroidered blanket under the saddle. Plate III shows another Divani (titled "du coté gauche", but a rare variant imprint from front right), with different bridle and blanket; an elaborately tooled gilt thong is strapped across the chest. The final plate IV shows the "cheval de main d'un Pacha" besides a large kiosk, with a long blanket, rich silver and gemstone decoration and two leopard skins. - Some fingerstaining in the margins, but well preserved. Thienemann 594-597.
Oblong folio. (2), 40 ff., title with lithographic vignette, with 40 lithographic plates on India (three composing a large panorama of Sinai, this not on India), tissue guards present. Contemporary German half calf over sprinkled boards, spine ornamented and lettered in gilt. Schubert (1780-1860), originally a theologian, then medical practitioner, was an exponent of Schelling's school of "Naturphilosophie". His text accompanies the illustrations after the landscape painter Johann Martin Bernatz. In 1836 he had accompanied Schubert and another scholar, Michael Pius Erdl, to Constantinople and the Holy Land, the result of which is this finely lithographed work. - Very light spotting in places only, some foxing and browning to title, panorama and one further plate; extremities a little worn. Cf. Tobler 228 and Engelmann 385 (1837 first edition).
Folio. 2 parts in one volume. (12), 843, (112) pp. (4), 282, (8) pp. Title printed in red and black with engraved vignette showing arms of Louis XIII. Double-column text in Greek and Latin. Finely engraved head- and tail-pieces and large inhabited initials throughout. Contemporary English vellum gilt, panelled sides with two double-rule borders enclosing a four-part fan motif centrepiece and surrounded by fan motif cornerpieces, flat spine gilt with foliate motifs and small tools. Enlarged and corrected second edition ("much more accurate and splendid than the first", says Dibdin) of Strabo’s "Geography", one of the earliest and most important scientific treatises of historical geography. Contains the Greek text beside Xylander's Latin translation, with commentaries by Frédéric Morel and Isaac Casaubon. Together with the works of Ptolemy and Solinus, Strabo's "Geography" constitutes the first attempt at a unified treatise of geographical knowledge. Strabo had visited Egypt and sailed up the Nile in 25 BC. Even in the introductory chapters, the author provides important details on the Arabian Peninsula: "Adjoining the Ethiopians, a needy and nomad race, is Arabia: one part of which is distinguished above all other lands by the title of Felix [i.e., Hedjaz and Nejd-ed-Ared], and the other, though not dignified by that name, is both generally believed and also said to be pre-eminently blessed. Though Homer knew of Arabia Felix, at that time it was by no means wealthy, but a wild country, the inhabitants of which dwelt for the most part in tents. It is only a small district which produces the aromatics from which the whole territory afterwards received its name, owing to the rarity of the commodity amongst us, and the value set upon it. That the Arabians are now flourishing and wealthy is due to their vast and extended trade" (bk. 1, p. 39); "Arabia Felix is bounded by the entire Arabian and Persian Gulfs, together with all the country of the tent-dwellers and the Sheikh-governed tribes. [...] Beside the ocean the country is tolerably fitted for habitation of man, but not so the centre of the country: this for the most part is barren, rugged sand desert. The same applies to the country of the Troglodytic Arabians and the part occupied by the fish-eating tribes" (bk. 2, p. 130f.) Furthermore, books 15 and 16 are devoted entirely to the Orient (bk. 16 is on Arabia in particular), while the final book 17 discusses Egypt and Libya. - With 19th c. bookplate of Richard Newcome, and later label of Viscount Mersey, Bignor Park, on the front free endpaper. Short marginal tear and a crease to the titlepage, single minute wormhole in the inner margin through the first half of the text block; a very good copy. Brunet V, 554. Graesse VII, 604. Schweiger I, 303. Hoffmann III, 454. Dibdin II, 433. Moss II, 620f. Ebert 21809.
Small folio (252 x 336 mm). (1), 23, (1) ff. (lacking first blank). With engraved medallion headpiece to first leaf. Modern marbled boards with giltstamped green title label to upper cover. Only edition. - A set of congratulatory poems in forty-six languages to honour the visit of Gustaf III of Sweden to Rome. This multilingual album of type specimens is a remarkable showcase for the typographical versatility of the Propaganda Press in the later 18th century, shortly before the printing-house was "despoiled unmercifully" (Updike I, 183) in 1798 by the French Directory. Includes versions in Arabic, Armenian, Chaldaic, Chinese, Croatian, Classical and Modern Greek, Hebrew, Malabar, Persian, Serbian, Syrian, Tibetan, and Turkish. - Some browning and foxing throughout; a few edge flaws (with occasional loss of corner) repaired. A wide-margined copy. Rare; OCLC lists eight copies worldwide (six in U.S. research libraries). OCLC 20273705.
8vo. (8), 86 pp., final blank f. Contemporary vellum. Second edition of Victorius's introduction to the Ethiopian language, first published in 1552. This is the first printing with the newly designed and cut Ethiopic types; an "Alphabetum" appeared one year later. In his preface, Venerius relates how the types were cut after designd received from Jesuit missionaries in Ethiopia. One set of types was sent to them, one was kept for the Propaganda Press. - Front inner hinge broken; title loosened. Some browning throughout. Ms. ownership of Joseph Venturi in Hebrew and Latin on title page, with his note "rara" and date of acquisition "3 Oct. 1785" on pastedown opposite. Smitskamp, PO 218. Vater/Jülg 7. Fumagalli 1173. Leslau 610. De Gubernatis 173. Silvestre de Sacy 2874. OCLC 50572132.
4to. (10), XVIII, 294 pp. Contemporary unsophisticated wrappers. Uncommon dictionary of Syriac compiled by Antonio Zanolini, professor of oriental languages at the seminary of Padua seminary. - Spine browned; slight waterstain to upper cover, not affecting interior. A wide-margined, untrimmed copy with several Greek, Hebrew and Syriac notes in a contemporary scholar's hand laid in. Vater/Jülg 387. Zaunmüller 372. OCLC 3667168.
8vo. pp. 97-105. With 2 photoplates. Modern wrappers. Early account of a visit to the seaport of Dhofar (Oman) on the southern coast of the Peninsula, including an interesting account of the local boats and the sailing skills of their owners. The illustrations show Makalla in Hadramaut, a camel drawing water in Dhofar, and the ruins of the temple of al-Bilad. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 777. OCLC 49427292.
