4355 risultati
8vo. VIII, 524 pp. Contemporary full sheepskin with giltstamped spine title. First American edition of the Qur'an, produced by Isaiah Thomas, founder of the American Antiquarian Society and the largest and most important Massachusetts publishing house during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Thomas adapted a translation of the French orientalist André Du Ryer for the American market, with occasional notes, including Turkish traditions. Du Ryer had been the envoy of the French king at Alexandria and Constantinople in the 17th century. His translation was the best available, and was frequently reprinted and translated into other European languages throughout the 18th century. - Some browning and light foxing throughout. Small hole slightly affecting text to leaf Aa6; quires Ff and Gg transposed; a tear in leaf O4 professionally repaired. Provenance: From the collection of the Massachusetts businessman Henry E. Call (fl. 1860s) with his ink ownership to title-page and oval stamps to flyleaf; front pastedown has mid-19th century note of acquisition for $2.00 from E. P. Dutton's Boston bookshop, founded in 1852. Shaw & Shoemaker 10684. Europe and the Arab World 32. OCLC 3548445. Not in Chauvin.
8vo. (12), 114, (2), 558, (34) pp. Title-page printed in red and black. Contemporary full vellum with ms. title to spine. First printing thus. - The edition of Christian Reineccius (1668-1752) contains the Latin text of Luigi Marracci (1612-1700), to which are added a history of the Qur'an and an account of the Muslim faith. Marracci's text, published in 1698, constituted the first accurate Latin translation, the first scholarly printed Qur'an (including a much more accurate Arabic text than any previously printed). "It was a considerable progress that the Qur'an, much maligned by so many in the West possessing no familiarity at all with its content, now was made generally available" (cf. Fück). - Some browning throughout, as common; old ownership "Steph. Manno" stamped to title page. Altogether very well-preserved in an immaculate contemporary full vellum binding. Schnurrer p. 413f. Fück 95, n. 251. BM Arabic I, 896. Enay 164. Zenker I, 1396. Woolworth p. 286.
Oblong 8vo. (4), 42 mounted colour printed plates, some of which heightened in gold, (4) pp. Each plate matted with the corresponding letterpress Qur'an verse with red border to versos opposite. Title-page printed in red and black. Contemporary green full calf with giltstamped title to cover and spine. Top edge gilt. Original stapled plain card slipcase. Only edition. A collection of 42 exquisite illustrations for selected suras from the Qur'an inspired by Persian miniatures. One of the earliest works by the Austrian-born painter and illustrator Lydis (1887-1970), a self-taught artist influenced by Islamic art as well as by the Japanese artist Tsuguharu Foujita. Lydis settled in Paris in 1926 and escaped the Nazis during the occupation, living briefly in England before emigrating to Buenos Aires. Today she is best known for her illustrations in de luxe editions of Boccaccio, Louÿs, Baudelaire, Mirbeau and Valéry. - The plates, in colours and gold, were printed by Ganymed in Berlin, the text by Proeschel & Trepte in Leipzig. - Extremities slightly rubbed. Interior in mint condition. Vollmer III, 278. OCLC 187048571.
8vo. V, (1), 158, 783, (1), 26, (2) pp. Near contemporary green half calf over marbled boards, flat spine elaborately gilt. First Swedish edition: the pioneering, first complete version of the Holy Qur'an in any Scandinavian language. The translator Fredrik Crusenstolpe (1801-82) was secretary to the Swedish consul in Tanger and a philhellene who had fought against the Ottomans in the Greek War of Independence. - The publication was privately funded by the translator himself: Crusenstolpe, who detected in the Swedish mentality an ignorance and tendency toward superstition which he resented, "felt personally compelled to furnish the Swedish audience with material to rectify some of the misconceptions about the Prophet Muhammad in Swedish popular imagination [...] He described the Prophet as a rational 'Arabic founder of law' (p. iii), in compliance with a common imagery of the Prophet which emerged in the European Enlightenment" (N. S. Eggen, "On the Periphery: Translations of the Our'an in Sweden, Denmark and Norway", in: The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Translation, ed. Sameh Hanna et al.). - Covers a little rubbed, corners slightly bumped. Some browning and occasional foxing throughout. From the library of Swedish linguist Hans Hultqvist (1943-2019) with his discrete shelf mark in pencil to title-page. Very rare: OCLC lists only four holding libraries (NY Public Library, Library of Congress, Cleveland Public Library, Ohio State University). Chauvin X, 238. OCLC 2011410.
8vo. 307 ff. Naskh calligraphy, 15 lines. Black ink on polished paper; borders in red and gold; sura headings in white ink on gilt; gilt discs for verse divisions. Double-page 'unwan on first two pages shows elaborate gilt ornamentation; colophon shows floral ornamentation in green and gilt. Coloured floral decoration to margins. Later cloth. Colophon in Arabic: "Finished Thursday afternoon 3 o'clock. The scribe is the son of Mehmed Halil Ibrahim, what is done is determined by Allah". - Provenance: acquired in Istanbul, Turkey, in the 1960s.
8vo (ca. 110 x 160 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. 260 ff. with 3 double-page 'Unwan headpieces in colours and gilt. 17 lines in meticulous black ink Naskhi, text within black, blue and gilt rules, verse divisions marked by black-bordered gold discs, red orthoepic markers and diacritics, sura beginnings in red on gilt background, line separators in black and gilt, marginal medallions (Juz' and Hizb markers) in colours and gilt, marginalia in red. Contemporary lacquer binding, covers elaborately painted with floral designs on outsides and insides. Later black morocco spine with stamped title. Stored in contemporary giltstamped leather slipcase with flap. An exceptionally pretty early 19th century Qur'an manuscript probably written in the Pashtunistan or Balochistan region of British India. Occasional insignificant edge flaws or various instances of light browning, but generally a very clean and well-preserved example in a pretty floral lacquer binding (corners bumped, spine repaired in more recent times). Slipcase a little rubbed and worn along extremeties.
8vo (105 x 149 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished paper. 306 ff., 2 flyleaves, 15 lines to the page. Written in fine Naskh script in black ink, verses separated by small gold roundels pointed in red, illuminated floral marginal devices throughout surah headings written in white thuluth script within gold-ground floral panels. Double-page illuminated 'unwan frontispiece elaborately decorated with interlacing polychrome flowers against a punched gold ground. Contemporary full gilt leather with fore-edge flap and gilt floral designs to covers. Endpapers covered with cornflower-blue, relief-stamped floral paper. Edges mottled in red. Stored in matching leather slipcase with flap and bellows-style cloth sides. A beautiful Qur'an manuscript from the early years of the era of Sultan Mahmud II, written in modern-day Turkey by Omar Al-Shawqi, student of Ismael Shawqi. - A small hole in the text of the second leaf, sewing a little loosened in places, otherwise a very attractively preserved example of a pocket-sized Qur'an.
8vo (208 x 150 mm). Contemporary blind- and goldstamped calf with fore-edge flap, decorated with corner stamps. Illuminated Arabic ms. on paper, 305 ff., single 15-line column, Naskh script on polished paper. Double-page 'unwan on first two pages shows elaborate gilt and coloured ornamentation. Text framed by three parallel golden and black lines. Gold discs between verses, sura headings written in gold.
8vo (149 x 94 mm). Illuminated Arabic ms. on paper, 211 ff., 20 lines, Naskh script. Double-page 'unwan on first two pages shows elaborate gilt and coloured ornamentation. Framed by strings of three gold and black lines. Gold discs between verses, sura headings written in gold. Original lacquer binding decorated with flowers. Traces of use, otherwise in good condition. Binding restored.
8vo (129 x 83 mm). Illuminated Arabic ms. on paper, 303 ff., 15 lines, Naskh script. Double-page 'unwan on first two pages shows elaborate gilt ornamentation; colophon shows coloured ornamentation. Text framed by three parallel golden, black and red wires. Gold discs between verses, sura headings written in gold. Contemporary blind- and giltstamped binding with fore-edge flap, decorated with borders and corner stamps. Some slight restoration to first leaves, otherwise in very good condition.
8vo (124 x 180 mm). Illuminated Arabic ms. on polished paper. 301 ff., final blank. 15 lines, Naskh script. Black ink on polished paper. Double-page 'unwan on first two pages shows elaborate gilt ornamentation. Borders in red, black and gold. Gold discs between verses, sura headings written in red. Contemporary blindstamped gilt calf. Complete Quran ms. with occasional coloured floral decoration to the margins. First leaf remargined; some fingerstaining and occasional browning; a very few ink smudges. Spine rebacked in different leather. Altogether a good example.
8vo (148 x 90 mm). Illuminated Arabic manuscript on paper, 243 leaves plus 2 fly-leaves, complete. 19 lines per page, written in a neat Naskhi script in black ink with diacritics in red, margins ruled in gold and colours. Gold discs or florets between verses, sura headings written in white within gilt cartouches flanked by panels with alternating floral motifs in gold and various colours. Brown morocco with flap and giltstamped borders and central ornaments. Splendid pocket-size Qur'an. Marginal section markers in white naskh on gold ground within polychrome flower blossom, opening double-page frontispiece richly illuminated in lapis lazuli blue, green, red, pink, and gold, the text within cloud bands in gold. - Hinge tender between the first two pages, some light marginal fingering, otherwise in perfect condition. From the library of the scientists and collectors Crawford Fairbanks Failey (1900-81) and Gertrude Van Wagenen (1893-1978), who performed research at Yale and Johns Hopkins in the fields of medical chemistry and biology.
Folio (244 x 345 mm). Arabic manuscript, Bihari script on paper. 287 (instead of 292) ff., foliated 364-655 (lacking 550-551 and 622-624). Surah headings in gilt and colours, verse divisions marked by gold and black ink rosettes, numerous circular and tear-shaped markers in the margins, elaborately ornamented in gold and colours. Bound in modern oriental-style full leather with fore-edge flap and recessed cover decorations. Part four of a pre-Mughal Qur'an commentary, treating the text from Surah XXI, Al-Anbya (The Prophets) to Surah LXXV, Al-Qiyamah (The Resurrection). - Lacks five leaves according to the foliation; some dampstaining; several edge flaws (more severe near the end of the volume), often remargined. Traces of dust in the gutter throughout. In all a fine example of an early Qur'anic manuscript. - Provenance: 1950s private ownership stamp of the "Mohd. Halim Salimi Library", Kandahar, Afghanistan, on fol. 490v. Mohammed Halim Salimi of Kandahar worked in an administrative capacity for the USA's International Cooperation Administration (ICA) Mission to Afghanistan in 1959. In 1960 Salimi applied to the ICA for reimbursement of a lost sum of $123.88; the application was refused on the grounds that Salimi was not in fact an ICA employee but was sub-contracted by the agent Herman Klee (see report B-144148-O.M., 1 Nov 1960). Acquired from Hampel Auctions, Munich. Cf. S. A. Blair, Islamic Calligraphy (Edinburgh 2006), pp. 386-390; Qur‘an, exhibition catalogue (Istanbul 2010), pp. 350f., no. 92.
Large 4to. (4), IX, (3), 187, (1), 508, (16) pp. With folding engr. map, folding engr. plate, and 3 (2 folding) engr. genealogical tables. Modern half calf with marbled covers, gilt. First printing of this important translation. "Showered with praise from the start" (cf. Enay). "The classic translation of the Quran [...] Sale worked from the original Arabic, but also used Marracci's Latin version, about which he said it was very precise, but too literal [...] Sale's translation is marked by a rather sober tidiness. Sale himself saw his work as a sort of defence of a much-maligned book [...] The translation's dispassionate, dry objectivity was an enormous step forward for western Quranic studies. Its deserved success was based to no little extent on the 'Preliminary Discourse', which provides a general introduction to the Quran as well as an overview of the most important Muslim denominations [...] For a century this account remained one of the principal sources from which the European educated elite drew its knowledge of all matters Quranic" (cf. Fück). - Title page slightly wrinkled and dusty. A good, very unobtrusively browned copy in an appealing modern binding. Chauvin X, 146. Schnurrer 429. Fück 104f. Enay 169. Graesse IV, 44. Ebert 11524.
8vo. (10), 547, (1) pp. With additional engraved title page and 6 engraved plates. Contemporary vellum with handwritten spine title. Uncommon Dutch edition of du Ryer's version, in a translation by J. H. Glasemaker (previously published in 1658), with a Life of the Prophet and numerous engravings by Caspar Luyken (1672-1708). Du Ryer's 1647 French version served as the basis for further translations of the Qur'an (including English, German, and Russian), and was instrumental in introducing Europeans to the tenets of the Muslim faith. - Block somewhat loosened, but still a good copy. Chauvin X, p. 129 (phi). Cf. Schnurrer 428.
4to. (10), 648 [but: 598], (4) pp. Contemporary half calf with giltstamped spine. Rare first edition of "the oldest complete translation of the Qur'an into a European vernacular" (Encylopedia of the Qur'an). Du Ryer's work served as the basis for further translations of the Qur'an into English, German, Dutch, and Russian, and was instrumental in introducing Europeans to the tenets of the Muslim faith. Du Ryer was a celebrated linguist and had lived in Egypt and Turkey, where he studied classical Arabic. His introduction briefly summarizes the Muslim religion for Christian readers, noting customs such as Ramadan, circumcision, the practice of having as many as four wives, the significance of Mecca and Medina, Sufi brotherhoods and wandering ascetics, and finally the Islamic recognition of Jesus as a prophet but not the son of God. A prayer printed in Arabic is included on the verso of leaf e2. - "Du Ryer's translation of the Qur'an [...] became an unparalleled literary success [...] The easy availability of the Qur'an accompanied a newfound interest in the Orient; additionally, du Ryer's translation lacked the polemical tone of previous editions, an orientation which arose mainly in ecclesiastical contexts. Du Ryer used Islamic commentaries such as al-Bayawi's Anwar al-tanzil, the Tafsir al-Jalalayan by al-Mahalli (d. 864/1459) and al-Suyu i (d. 911/1505), or an excerpt from al-Razi's (d. 606/1210) great commentary made by al-Raghi al-Tunisi (d. 715/1315) entitled al-Tanwir fi l-tafsir, quite casually in his translation, merely noting them in the margins. The deprecatory tone present in the introductory chapter, 'Sommaire de la religion des Turcs,' can be understood as an attempt at camouflage (cf. Hamilton and Richard, André du Ryer, 94f)" (Encyclopedia of the Qur'an). - Some waterstaining throughout; occasional worming; more pronounced edge damage near end. Provenance: 1714 ms. ownership (partly stricken out) of the Castelnaudary Capuchins, dissolved in 1789; acquired by the notary J. L. E. Bauzit of Castelnaudary (his ownership on title and flyleaf). Chauvin X, p. 126. Schnurrer 427. Fück 74. Brunet III, 1309. Encyclopedia of the Qur'an V, 347.
8vo. 42 (but: 40), 678 pp. With engraved frontispiece. Near-contemporary half calf with giltstamped red spine label. All edges red. Second edition of this German Qur'an translation, previously issued in 1773. Following Megerlin's ill-received effort of 1772, this is the second German translation to have been based immediately on the Arabic original. - Pagination of preliminaries agrees with NUC, with pp. 15f. skipped. Includes the frequently lacking engraved frontispiece depicting a Muslim in prayer. Contemporary ownership to flyleaf. Slightly browned as usual; a good, tighly bound copy. Zenker I, 1400. Schnurrer, p. 431. Graesse IV, 44. Woolworth 285. VD 18, 90017838. Not in Enay.
3 parts in 3 folio volumes (302 x 205 mm). (4), 34, 436 ff. 30, 248 ff. 6, 34, 455 (not 456) ff. With a total of 51 engravings in the text (7 full-page) and 12 double-page maps and plans (2 full-page). 20th-c. full brown morocco, double-gilt fillet on the covers, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fleurons, mottled edges. Stored in custom-made calf-edged slipcases. Perfectly complete copy of this superb collection of travels, composed of the first edition of the 3rd part and the second edition of the 1st and 2nd part. The second edition, widely enlarged, of the 1st part, is the first and only one to present the 3 double-page maps representing Africa and India that had not been printed in the first edition of 1550, and which would not be reprinted in the 3rd edition of 1563 since the wood plates of these 3 maps had been destroyed in the fire that ravaged Giunti's workshop in 1557. - "This work, which served as a model to Hakluyt, was the first systematical collection of voyages that had so far appeared [...] It [...] is carefully and intelligently done" (Cox). "All authors are unanimous of their praise of Ramusio's choice of published narratives. Locke, the English philosopher, states that it is 'the most perfect work of that nature in any language'. Harrisse writes, 'The publication of Ramusio's "Raccolta" may be said to open an era in the literary history of Voyage and Navigation. Instead of accounts carelessly copied and translated from previous collections, perpetuating errors and anachronisms, we find in this valuable work original narratives which betray the hand of a scholar of great critical acumen'" (Borba de M.). The first volume, mainly dedicated to Africa and South Asia, happily includes several travel reports of the utmost importance for the exploration of the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf region. Lodovico Varthema's travel report, famous for detailing the first recorded visit of a Westerner to Mecca, indeed the first western encounter with the Arab world, contains accounts of the holy cities of as well as of the port of Jeddah, information on Bedouin life and costume, etc. (ff. 162-166). - The account of Vasco da Gama's voyage to India is comparable in importance only to Columbus’s in the west, as it “opened the way for the maritime invasion of the East by Europe” (PMM 42). Da Gama’s pioneering sea voyage ranks amongst the greatest historic events of the second millennium and as “one of the defining moments in the history of exploration” (BBC History, online). It is also considered the turning point in the political history of the Arabian Gulf region, followed as it was by a prolonged period of east-west commerce, conquest and conflict. Critically, the excerpt here published includes details on "una isola [i. e., Julfar] verso il colfo Persico dove altro non si fa che pescar perle" (I, f. 132). - Duarte Barbosa's report includes accounts of Mecca and Medina (f. 323), the ports of Jeddah (ibid.) and Aden (f. 324), the Arab kingdom of Hormuz (ff. 324-327), Julfar and the islands in the Arabian Gulf (f. 325, with reference to pearl-diving), etc. Also, we find the very early and highly influential, albeit imprecise data on the Kuwait region: place names such as Lorom, Gostaque, Bacido, Conga, Menahaon (p. 325) etc. which Slot discusses at some length: "Much of the toponymic information in the Kuwait region on the maps from the Gastaldi group is based on an erroneous interpretation of Duarte Barbosa's text. From this text come the strange names of places in the area of Kuwait like Costaqui (Kuhistaq) which should in fact be placed on the other side of the Gulf [...] Loron [...] might be an error for the Karun River which is on the Persian side just east of the Shatt al-Arab. Then follows inside the inlet of the Gulf of Kuwait the name Manahon. Then follows around this 'Gulf of Kuwait' three names which are cased by erroneous plotting [...]: Congo (Bandar Kong), Costaqui (Kuhistaq) and Bacido (Basaidu) with the offshore island of Queximi (Qism). These are names taken from [...] Duarte Barbosa's book and erroneously plotted on this coast" (Origins of Kuwait, p. 15). - The volume also includes a set of three woodcut maps by Gastaldi: the first showing Africa, the second showing the Indian subcontinent, the Strait of Hormuz, the Eastern half of the Gulf, and the Indian Ocean, while the third shows Southeast Asia and the East Indies. These were a great advance on earlier maps, including even Gastaldi's own, taking into account new information provided by Portuguese explorers. Many of the topographic names in the Gulf region derive from the forms used by these navigators and can be identified, sometimes tentatively, from their place on the first two of these maps and from the early accounts of the voyages: "Cor. Dulfar" (Dhofar), the island "Macira" (Masirah), "C. Resalgate" (Ras al Had?), "Galatia" (the ancient site Qalhat), "Mazcate" (Muscat), the island "Quexumo" (Qeshm), "Ormus" (Hormuz), and there is even an unlabelled city close to the present-day Abu Dhabi. - Occasional handwritten ink notes. Waterstain on the lower part of vol. 2, ff. 31-35; some browned leaves; otherwise fine, a washed copy. Provenance: Professor Eva G. R. Taylor (1879-1966), historian of science and the first woman to hold an academic chair of geography in the UK, presented to Birkbeck College, University of London (bookplate) and sold through Sotheby's in 1990. Sabin 67731, 67737, 67740. Harrisse 304. Church 99. Borba de Moraes² 698f. Bosch 46. Cox I, 28. Cordier, BS 1939. Fumagalli (Bibl. Etiopica) 83 (note). Gay 258. Adams R 135, 137, 140. Brunet IV, 1100f. Slot, The Origins of Kuwait (1998), p. 15 & 187.
42 x 100 cm. Five-tone lithographic map with illustration by Harraz. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale 1:7,500,000. Road map also showing railways, populated places, boundaries, rivers, wadis, and possible flood areas. Includes inset map: Diagrammatic map of the Arab world. Folded. First edition of this large, decorative map, showing the highways that linked countries under Arabian influence in the early 1970s. It stretches as far north as Turkey, south to the Sudan, west to Mauritana and east beyond the Strait of Hormuz, capturing the whole of the Arabian Gulf including Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the People's Republic of Southern Yemen. The verso contains an index of main travel routes through these various countries. - The United Arab Republic, as it is here referred to, was formed through a political union of Egypt and Syria. It was instigated by the Egyptian Prime Minister Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) and was seen as an expression of pan-Arab sentiment. Syria broke aways from the union in 1961 (and is here shown as an independent country), but Egypt continued to use the name until 1972. The People's Republic of Yemen, the only communist state to be established in the Arab world, was formed in late 1967, to last until 1990. - Some nicks and small tears, a single mark to the covers, a 1 cm tear on the left side of the map. In very good condition for a fragile map. Scarce: LibraryHub does not locate any holdings whilst Worldcat adds just eight institutional copies worldwide. OCLC 5403988.
4to. 3 parts in 1 vol. Title-page printed in red and black. With 3 woodcut title vignettes (including one showing a camel). (8) ff. (incl. final blank), 123, (1) pp. (2), 161, (1) pp., 1 bl. f. 176, (6) pp. Contemporary blindstamped brown calf with 2 clasps. Rare second edition, printed in the year of the first edition: a German description of a three-year journey to Palestine and the Near East by the botanist Rauwolf (1535-96), with many authentic and reliable observations, also about the people and customs and of the difficulties of travel. His description of the preparation of coffee in Aleppo was the first such report by a European. "Highly influential travel account by the learned Augsburg physician and botanist who journeyed to Jerusalem in the years 1573 to 1576. The 8th chapter of part I contains the celebrated descriptions of the coffee drink and of the coffee berry [...] Rauwolf's account of coffee as a social drink of the East is thought to be the earliest in a printed book" (Hünersdorff/H. II, 1221). "Rauwolf [...] made a hazardous journey in many parts of the East to collect foreign plants; his herbarium is now carefully preserved at the Rijksherbarium in Leiden" (Hunt 146). "He was the first modern botanist to collect and describe the flora of the regions east of the Levantine coast" (Norman). An illustrated edition expanded by a fourth part was published at Lauingen the following year. - Binding professionally repaired at extremeties. Title page remargined, showing some fingerstaining; occasional slight brown- and waterstaining; a few contemporary marginalia near the end. VD 16, ZV 12969. Adams R 188. Pritzel 7430. Cf. Norman 1782. Not in BM-STC German.
Small folio (224 x 284 mm). 15 vols. (final vol. in 2 parts), uniformly bound in half tan sheep over decorated boards, spines gilt with raised bands in five compartments, decorated endleaves. Some original printed wrappers bound within. All edges sprinkled. First editions; all that was published of this massive project. The "Corpo diplomatico" deals with the relations between Portugal and the Roman Curia, presenting a chronologically arranged sequence of documents from the 16th and 17th centuries. The Portuguese Empire was the first global empire in history, and the sources here edited - frequently citing the significant Portuguese royal title of "King of Portugal and the Algarves, on this side of the sea, and on the other side in Africa, lord of Guinea and of the naval and commercial conquest of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India" - provide substantial information on the principal world issues and conflicts during that vast Empire's first era. Much of the diplomatic correspondence concerns conflicts between the worlds of Christianity and Islam: in one letter, King Manuel describes his attacks on and victories over the local Muslim rulers ("the Saracens are thrown into confusion"; "our men attacked and burned maritime towns belonging to the Saracens, situated on the mainland"; cf. vol. I, p. 116f.), and in a Papal Breve, Pius V praises the strengthening of the Maltese fortifications after the Great Siege of Malta ("erit opportunissimum adversus Turcas, et praedones Afros totius christiani populi propugnaculum", vol. X, p. 226). Many volumes, but VII through XI in particular, contain material on the Arabian Gulf (Basra, Bahrain, Muscat, and Ormuz): "Ormuz, que he cabeça de todo o Reino de Ormuz [...] e na dita Cidade de Ormuz fortaleza minha com muita gente de christâos portuguezes" (vol. II, p. 374); "o vejo, que se se faz guerra ao Turco e Vossa Alteza quer, sem despesa de quasi nada, o Egipto e Suria e Arabia seraom vossos" (vol. III, p. 243); "e asy mandou que se reteuessem todas as naos, que viessem da India a Judá e a Meca" (p. 397); "se entende hum muito boom socedimento pella armada de Vossa Alteza na ilha de Banrrehem [= Bahrain] de que se deve ter muito contentamento assi pella reputaçâo" (vol. VIII, p. 372); "e depois em Ormuz poderia saber o acontesimento de Baharem" (p. 468); "toda a costa de Melinde ate Moçambique e assi da outra de Adem ate Ormuz quererâo por alguma d aquellas tentar ardis [...] A Baçora vai tambem muita somma de especiaria" (vol. IX, p. 110f.); "O negocio he grave e de muita consideraçâo e em ser muita a somma da speciaria que vem pello mar Roxo ao Cayro e pello de Ormuz a Bacora" (p. 135); "Andre Ribeiro que com Joâo de Lisboa foi cativo em Mazcate" (p. 175); "creo tambem que elles lá ou nos quá nâo sabemps o que passa em Bacora porque se n aquella ilha creserem galees sem hirem do mar Roxo, como as que ali vierâo quando de caminho tomarâo Mascate nâo sey por onde viessem as outras" (p. 305); "pera o resgate dos portugueses que estam cativos no Cayro, e forom presos em Mazcate" (p. 382; cf. p. 485); etc. - Furthermore, there are reports on the Portuguese in Suez, Africa (including Angola, Mozambique, Guiné, Sofala, Morocco, Arguin, Cabo Verde, Congo, São Thomé, Ethiopia), Brazil (Bahia, Maranhão, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco), the Azores, India (in nearly every volume, including Goa, Cochin, Damão, Malabar), and the Far East (Malacca and the Moluccas, with a few sections on Macau, China, and Japan scattered in vols. X-XIV). The work also provides a wealth of detail about the Inquisition and "cristãos novos" (both discussed in almost every volume), the Jesuits (vols. V-XV), the Council of Trent (vols. VI-X), Protestant activity (particularly in England), the Restauração, the Dutch in Brazil, the wars with the Turks on land and sea, and the activities of D. Sebastião and St. Charles Borromeu, the Order of Malta, and Cardinal Mazarin. Among the most notable texts are Ambassador Martinho's 1533 letter describing the forces defending Christianity in India and Africa, Bishop Lourenço Pires de Tavora's account of monasteries in India in 1561, and 25 letters written by P. Antonio Vieira from 1671 to 1675 (vol. XIV). - Marginal spotting in vol. XV, part 1; last 5 leaves remargined. Very discreet library markings on rear pastedown of each volume. Overall a very good set. Innocêncio IX, 95. OCLC 55783574.
8vo. XLVIII, 582 pp. Contemporary dark green half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine, marbled endpapers. First edition of a work on Islamic texts about the Christian crusades, by the French orientalist Joseph Toussaint Reinaud (1795-1867). It gives a French translation of numerous texts and extracts relating to the crusades originally written in Arabic from the 11th to the 15th century by Arab historians, with occasionally some passages in Arabic in the notes. Most of the texts deal with major battles and sieges, Saladin, and victories and deaths of important leaders. The preliminaries include brief biographies of some of the major authors, including Ali ibn al-Athir, Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani, Ibn al-Adim and many more. The texts are arranged into different chapters, each devoted to a different stage of the crusades. - The book is in fact the publication of a part of the extensive manuscript by Georges-François Berthereau (1732-94), who collected numerous Arab texts on the crusades, but the publication was prohibited during years following the French Revolution. The book was published as a part of the Biblithèque des croisades, as an addition to the well-known Histoire des croisades, written by Joseph François Michaud (1767-1839). - With a stain on the half-title and some staining throughout, otherwise in very good condition. Hage Chahine 3963. Not in Blackmer.
Folio (ca. 275 x 365 and 370 x 555 mm). Altogether 13 volumes (7 text volumes and 7 issues of plates in 6 volumes). (4), 884, (4) pp. With 70 engraved and lithographed numbered plates, including 1 folded plate, 1 folded map, and 8 plans, 3 of which folded; a few in original hand colour. Contemporary wrappers. Plates stored in two half cloth portfolios. First edition. - A rare complete set of this monumental description of the 1860/61 archaeological expedition to Lebanon and Syria, commissioned by Napoleon III and led by the renowned scholar of Semitic languages, Joseph Ernest Renan. The text volumes give a vivid account of the expedition, its route and findings, and include several illustrations within the text, while the plates provide additional documentation of the visited archaeological sites. Engraved by Jules Penel (b. 1833), Georges Erhard Schièble (1821-80), and others, they include a map of the expedition area, Phoenician monuments at Amrit, Arwad, Byblos, Sidon and other places, as well as a folded plate showing the Kabr Hiram mosaic and 3 folded plans depicting Sidon and the Sidon necropolis. This important work documents the state of the excavations at that time and triggered further research on the Phoenicians. A facsimile edition appeared in 1998. - Text volumes uncut. Some wrappers faded, extremities bumped. Paper somewhat browned as common; plates fresh and clean.
Small 4to (140 x 187 mm). 68 ff. (but title is fragmentary, preserving the letterpress only, laid down to old paper). Near-contemporary full leather binding, spine rebacked. All edges red. Rare edition of this famous and scare refutation of the Qur'an. The Dominican Ricoldus (ca. 1243-1320) was sent to the orient as a missionary in 1288. He visited the Holy Land and travelled to Baghdad via Cilicia, Erzurum, and Tabriz. During his stay in Baghdad, Ricoldus studied the Qur'an and other works of Islamic theology, for controversial purposes, arguing with Nestorian Christians. He is said even to have begun a translation of the Qur'an about 1290, but it is not known whether this work was completed. - Ricoldus returned to his native Florence around the year 1300 to compose or edit several works about the Middle East. While many of his writings praise the Muslims' social behaviour, hospitality and sense of honour, his best-known work, the "Contra legem Sarracenorum", is a notorious refutation of the Islamic doctrines. Largely a compilation from William of Tripolis, Marcus of Toledo and the "Contrarietas alpholica", and probably an early effort written in preparation of Ricoldus's mission, it contends that the Qur'an's self-contradictory passages, confused arrangement and want of miracles prove that Islam cannot be a true revealed religion. Despite Ricoldo's hostility towards Islam his work shows specific knowledge of the Qur'an and overcomes one important prejudicial error common to other medieval criticisms of Islam: the perception that Muhammad introduced a christological heresy. The work was widely received; a Greek translation was prepared as early as 1385 by Demetrius Kydones, which was re-translated into Latin by Bartolomeo Piceno as "Improbatio" or "Confutatio Alcorani". A Spanish version appeared at Toledo in 1502, and Luther translated parts into German in 1530 (his "Verlegung des Alcoran" appeared in 1542). It influenced Pope Pius II, John of Segovia and Nicolaus Cusanus (cf. LMA VII, 808). - Binding worn but professionally repaired; spine rebacked. Some fingerstaining and browning with occasional slight worming to gutter. Trimmed rather closely with printed marginalia cropped in places, title fragment torn out and mounted, preserving some old handwritten annotations. Provenance: Mehmed V (1844-1918), Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1909, with his his Arabic bookplate on the pastedown. VD 16, R 2328. BNHCat R 296. This edition not in Panzer.
Large 8vo (300 x 220 mm). 6 vols. bound as 3. With 250 numbered plates (image size 120 x 170 to 150 x 220 mm), including a tinted lithographed portrait of the artist, 6 tinted lithographed title-pages, 2 stone-engraved maps and 239 tinted and double-tinted lithographed and 2 chromolithographed views. Contemporary, richly gold-tooled reddish-brown morocco, side-stitched and oversewn, then sewn on 5 recessed cords, with a hollow back, 5 false bands on the spine, gold-tooled turn-ins, combed and curled marbled endpapers, headbands in red and yellow, gilt and gauffered edges. With thin paper guard leaves facing each plate. Second edition, with reduced illustrations but with more of them double-tinted or chromolithographed, of one of the most splendid and historically important visual records of the Middle East, after drawings by David Roberts (1796-1864) from the sketches he made from life during his travels through what is now Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon in 1838 and 1839. In Egypt he ventured up the Nile as far as the Nubian temples at Abu Simbel, near the present border with Sudan and travelled by camel through the Sinai to the extraordinary carved-rock buildings of Petra. These had been unknown to Europeans until Burckhardt discovered them in 1812 and 1813, so Roberts's views are among the earliest and are in many ways better than the few predecessors. In Lebanon he ventured as far as Baalbek, which had seen few European visitors before Egypt annexed it in 1832. Other sites he visited and drew include Cairo, Suez, Gaza, Jerusalem and Beirut. He was one of the first Europeans allowed to make drawings of the interior of mosques, so even in well-known cities these too opened a new world to European eyes. His views also provide a very detailed visual record of many sites that were afterward destroyed or disturbed. He drew them during the infancy of photography, before it reached the Middle East and long before it reached maturity there. His views of the modern cities also preserve records of both their architecture and their daily life and he shows spectacular landscapes in the mountains, around the Dead Sea and along the Nile and the Jordan. Roberts, born to a poor (Welsh?) family in Edinburgh, was apprenticed as a house painter, moved to London and worked his way up to paint sets for the Drury Lane Theatre and others. Thanks to patrons who appreciated his talents and hard work he was able to make the expensive and dangerous voyage through the Middle East. George Croly (in volumes 1-3) and William Brockedon (in volumes 4-6) provided explanatory and historical notes on the sites shown in Roberts's views. - Roberts's views were originally published in two separate works, issued in parts in the years 1842 to 1849 and often found together. One centred on the Holy Land, though also including views in other parts of the Middle East, while the other was devoted to Egypt and Nubia. The views in the former were made with only a single tint block and even the latter used fewer tint blocks than the present second edition and only one chromolithograph. The present edition, with sometimes very intricate double tints and two chromolithographs (with black and three tint blocks) is a masterpiece of tinted lithography. Since the lithographers used photographic reductions of the lithographic views of the first edition as an aid to their work, the book also pioneered the use of photography in graphic reproduction. The lithographed title-pages are dated 1855 except for those of vol. 3 (from the simultaneous New York issue, undated) and 6 (1856) but volumes 2-6 include plates dated 1856. The dates of the plates in all six volumes range from 16 April 1855 to 15 December 1856. - The title-page of volume 3 was intended for the simultaneous New York issue, but appears to have always been part of the present copy. In very good condition, with occasional light foxing, mostly on the backs of the plates, and with a faint marginal water stain in the lower outside corner of many plates in volumes 3 and 4, not approaching the printed image. The inside front hinge of the second volume as bound has separated from the book block and the bindings show some wear at the hinges and extremities, but they are otherwise also very good. 250 mostly tinted and double-tinted lithographs providing stunning early views of the Middle East, including Petra, Abu Simbel and the interiors of several mosques. Abbey, Travel 388 (lacking vols. 5-6). Blackmer 1432 (note). Gay 25. Hiler 205. Cf. Hamilton, Europe and the Arab world 66 (1842-49 ed.); Lipperheide, Lc 12 & Ma 27 (1842-49 ed.); Tooley 401f. (1842-49 ed.); not in Colas.