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

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

[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

AL-ZAMAKHSHARI and Jens Peter BROCH. Al-Mufassal, opus de re grammatica Arabicum.
Oslo, W.C. Fabritius, 1859. 8vo. Near contemporary cloth with title in gold on spine, covered with protective plastic. 229, [5] pp. Full description

[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

[BELIGATTI, Giovanni (Cassiono Da MACERATA)]. Alphabetum Tangutanum sive Tibetanum.
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1773. 8vo. With a folding table, printer's device on title-page and an elaborate woodcut tailpiece after the preliminaries. Modern vellum, green title label. XVI, 138, [2] pp. Full description

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

[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

[BIBLE - PSALMBOOK]. PSALTERION Prophetou kai Basileoos tou David [in Greek type] - Davidis Regis ac Prophetae Psalmorum Liber. Ad exemplar Complutense.
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1584. 16mo (11,8 x 8 cm). With woodcut printer's device on the title-page, text is partially printed in Greek. Late seventeenth-century dark brown calf, with gold-stamped coat of arms of Pierre-Daniel Huet on both covers and gold-tooled dubbel-lined borders on covers and spine, (remnants of) red speckled edges. 267, [13] pp. Full description

CSOMA DE KORÖS, Alexander (Sándor KORÖSI CSOMA). A grammar of Tibetan language in English. Prepared, under the patronage of the government and the auspices of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Calcutta, the Baptist Mission Press, 1834. Small folio (27 x 20 cm). Printed in Tibetan and English, complete with a 40-page syllabic schema of the Tibetan language and the Tibetan alphabet in Bámyik, Bruts'ha and Lánts'ha characters. 20th-century red cloth, title in gold on spine. XII, 204, [1 blank], 40, [1 blank] pp. Full description

[AUTOGRAPHS]. DORN, Bernard. [21 autograph letters, signed, to Marie-Félicité Brosset].
Saint Petersburg, ca. 1840-1879. 8vo (letters, mostly 21 x 13.5 cm) and folio (list of publications). Letters in French with an occasional (Persian?) word in Arabic script, written in black ink on paper, some with the address on the outside and one with Dorn's (Persian?) red wax seal in Arabic script.
With: (2) [Manuscript chronological numbered list of 34 publications by Dorn, 1843-1865].
[Saint Petersburg, ca. 1865]. 20 letters [4] pp. each (some including blanks); 1 letter [1, 1 blank] pp.; list of publications [4] pp. Full description