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Book History, Education, Learning & Printing / Greek & Non-Western Types

Aesop edited by Heinsius and illustrated by Van Sichem, in a prize-binding with the Amersfoort arms

AESOP. Fabulae ... Graecè & Latinè, nunc denuo selectae: eae item quas Avienus carmine expressit. Accedit Ranarum & murium pugna, Homero olim asscripta. Cum elegantissimis in utroque libello figuris, & utriusque interpretatione plurimis in locis emendata.
Leiden, Joannes Maire, 1632. 8vo. With 47 woodcut illustrations (5 x 6.5 cm) by Christoffel van Sichem II in the text. Contemporary vellum, each board with a panel stamp (59 x 50 mm) of the Amersfoort coat of arms. Most endpapers later. 158, [2] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
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by the Imprimerie Impériale in Paris, with a contemporary literal manuscript translation by a French orientalist">"The history of the forty viziers" in Ottoman Turkish, beautifully printed in Arabic type
by the Imprimerie Impériale in Paris, with a contemporary literal manuscript translation by a French orientalist

[AHMED-I MISRI and/or SEYHZADE]. BELLETESTE, Henri-Nicolas (editor). [in Arabic type:] Kýrk vezir hikâyeleri ... = Contes Turcs en langue Turque, extraits de roman intitulé, Les quarante vizirs.
Paris, Imprimerie Impériale ("chez" (sold by?) Guillaume Debure and sons), 1812. 4to. With the text in Ottoman Turkish set entirely in Arabic type, with only a second title-page in French, the book opening from the left wrapper with the Turkish title-page and the pages proceeding from left to right, while it opens from the right wrapper with the French title-page. The Turkish and French title-pages, the former in a decorative frame, include Napoleons woodcut imperial coat of arms: eagle clutching a thunderbolt, mantled and with the imperial crown, the collar (with an "N") and badge of the Legion of Honour and the crossed sceptres of mercy and justice, printed from two different blocks (that on the Turkish title-page is smaller and the points of the sceptres extend beyond the mantling). The first page of the text is set in a richly decorated frame in the traditional Islamic style. With: (2) IDEM. A second copy of the same edition, omitting the Turkish title-page and the last 50 leaves (pp. 161-258 & 2 unnumbered), but including the original publishers front wrapper (containing a short form of the title), and with a French manuscript translation of the Turkish text written in the margins.
Ad 1 in contemporary blue paper wrappers with a white printed spine label, stored in a 20th-century custom-made case: half red morocco with the title in gold on the spine and block-printed (green on white) paste-paper sides; ad 2 sewn and with the original publishers printed-paper front wrapper. [2], 258, [2]; 160 pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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The martyr of Lebanon: autobiography of an Arab prisoner of conscience

AL-SHIDYAQ, As’ad. Khabariyat As`ad al-Shidyaq alladhi udtuhida li-ajl iqrarihi fil-haqq. [Account of As ad al-Shidyaq who was persecuted for his steadfastness in the truth].
Malta, [Anglican] Church Missionary Society [for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions], 1833. 12mo. With all text in Arabic and the wrapper with a decorated frame built up from typographic ornaments. Original publisher's letterpress printed wrapper. 52 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
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First extensive Syriac grammar, set in serto type with woodcut estrangela and (for the first time) Eastern Syriac

AMIRA, Georgius Michaelis (Jiris ibn Mikha’il ibn ‘). [Grammatiqi suraya aw kaldayata ...]. Grammatica Syriaca, sive Chaldaica ...
Rome, Giacomo Luna (Yaqub ibn al-Hilal), Typographia Linguarum Externarum (successor to the Syriac materials of the Tipografia Medicea Orientale), 1596. 4to. Contemporary limp vellum, manuscript spine title. [44], 480 pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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A rare survival of a printing device: a woodblock for the cross-cultural printing
of a Hebrew publication of the Song of Solomon

[ARABIC-SCRIPT PRINTER’S WOODBLOCK]. Hand-cut woodblock bearing the text "Safr Nishd al-nishad li-Süleyman ..." (Book of the Song of songs of Solomon) in naskh Arabic script.
[Probably Ottoman provinces, mid-18th century (ca. 1750)]. A single hand-cut woodblock (17 x 9 x 2.2 cm, with protrusions to the left and right making it wider - 11 cm - near the head to accommodate the wider 2nd line) intended for use as printing block, with 6 lines of text, together with an inked impression on 18th century paper (16.5 x 10.5 cm). Full description
€ 18,000
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The famous Arabic version of Robert Bellarmino's catechism, now with parallel Ethiopic

BELLARMINO, Roberto. Dottrina Cristiana composta dall...
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1786. Large 4to. With 4 woodcuts on 3 plates, 1 full-page woodcut on the back of the title-page, and a few woodcut initials, factotums and decorations, as well as frames, factotums and decorations built up from arabesque and rococo typographic ornaments. Set in three columns in Ethiopic, roman and Arabic type. Contemporary vellum, gold-tooled spine title, red sprinkled edges. 97, [1] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
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1619 issue of the 1591 first edition of the Gospels in Arabic and Latin

[BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - GOSPELS - ARABIC & LATIN]. Arba`at Anajil Yasu` al-Masih Sayyidina al-Muqaddasah. Sacrosancta quatuor Iesu Christi D. N. Evangelia. Arabice scripta, Latine reddita, figurisq[ue] ornata.
Rome, Typographia Medicea, (1591)-1619. Folio (26 x 36.5 cm). Title-page printed in red and black, with the woodcut Medici coat of arms 81 woodcut illustrations in the text (plus 68 repeats), some initialled LP for the block cutter (Leonardo Parassole or less likely Lucas Pennis) and some also AT for the artist (Antonio Tempesta). Set in naskh Arabic type with the interlinear Latin text in roman. Contemporary Italian flexible boards with manuscript title on spine. [4], 9-462, [2] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
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Monumental and seminal critical edition of the Greek New Testament (1550) with all woodcut devices, headpieces and initials coloured, including much gold and silver and extensive additional colour decorations in a rococo style

[BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - GREEK]. ESTIENNE, Robert, editor. Tῆò Káéíῆò ÄéáèÞêçò ἅπáíôá [Tes Kaines Diathekes Apanta] = Novum Jesu Christi D.N. Testamentum Ex Bibliotheca Regia.
Paris, Robert Estienne, King's printer, 1550. Folio (35 x 24 cm). With a Greek and Latin title-page including Estiennes woodcut basilisk device as Kings printer (and 1 repeat), his woodcut olive tree device on the otherwise blank last page (N6v), 3 single-piece decorated architectural frames with putti, etc. (plus 3 repeats) for the tables of the Eusebian canons for the Gospels, 9 woodcut headpieces and 21 decorated woodcut initial letters (plus numerous repeats). Set almost entirely in the three sizes of Claude Garamonts famous Greek printing types, known as the Grecs du Roi, and the first use of the largest size. The present copy has been richly decorated, probably around the time it was bound, not just by colouring Estiennes woodcut devices (the basilisk in gold), decorative frames, headpieces and initials, but also by adding extensive decorations in rococo style, the whole using a large number of mostly bright colours plus gold and silver. Gold-tooled black sheepskin, the gold-tooled spine with the title, publisher and date in the 2nd and 6th of 7 compartments in roman capitals, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt and richly gauffered edges, Dutch combed and curled endpapers. [32], “272” [= 268], 202, [2] pp. Full description
€ 95,000
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