First and only edition of Obicini's Arabic, Syriac and Latin glossary, based on the 11th-century Arabic and Syriac glossary compiled by the East Syriac scholar, monk and priest Elija bar Shinaja from Shenna in what is now northern Iraq, metropolitan of Nisibis from 1008. Shinaja's version is also known as "The book of the interpreter". The words are arranged by subject and set in three columns with, from right to left, Arabic, Syriac and Latin. It opens from the right, like an Arabic or Syriac book. The Index alphabeticus has its own title-page, pagination and series of signatures, but forms an appendix to the Thesaurus, providing an alphabetical index to the Latin words and phrases.
Binding somewhat worn; minor foxing. Ownership stamp (Germain: Jacobins P.B.S.) and signature of De la Roche (marquis) on title, last page with another owner's inscription. From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013). A pioneering work in the European study of the Arabic and Syriac languages. ICCU VEAE003127; Philologia orientalis 223 (and for Obicini 222); for the Arabic type: Vervliet, Palaeotypography (2008), pp. 450-451; for the Syriac type: Coakley, Typography of Syriac (2006), W13; for Shinaja: www.iranicaonline.org/articles/elija-bar-sinaja.