
ARABICA
(A
Remarkable Trio). Rosenmüller, Ernest Friedrich Karl.
Analecta arabica editit latine vertit et illustravit. Ern. Fried. Car. Rosenmüller.
Lipsiae: sumtibus I. A. Barthii, 1825-1828. 8vo. 3 vols. in 1. I: xii, 44, 23,
[1 (blank)] pp. II: xviii, 55, [1], 39, [1] pp., [1] f. III: viii, 56, 27, [1
(blank)] pp.
$2250.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
In this amazing volume Rosenmüller has gathered three important anthologized Arabic texts and proceeds to offer them in Arabic and Latin; he even provides Latin-language prefaces and, for two texts, Arabic–Latin glossaries. The first text is given the Latin title, “Institutiones iuris Mohammedano e duobus al-Codurii codicibus” and is an anthology of passages from Mukhtasar of Imam al-Quduri on questions relating to Moslems making war on infidels. Mukhtasar al-Quduri is universally recognized as one of the earliest mainstays of the Hanafi school of legal scholarship.
The second text, entitled “Zohairi Carmen al-moallakah appellatum” in Latin and “Mu'allaqāt” in Arabic, is composed of seven poems of considerable length in Arabic that predate the advent of Islam. Each is by a different poet and is considered his best work. Glosses are present and pp. ix–xvi reproduce Reiske's introduction to his Taraphae Moallakah.
The last text is on Syria, from the writings of Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrîsî (cartographer, geographer and traveller who lived in Sicily) and al-Zâhirî.
A very handsomely printed book in Arabic and Latin.
Lambrecht 1129. 19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper, boards and spine abraded; paper spine-label with hand-lettering. Institutional bookplate on front pastedown. Four-digit number in ink at base of first p. V. Housed in a modern quarter brown morocco tray case with raised bands on spine, each accented above and below with gilt beading (our last image shows the volume lying in its box). One spine compartment with title, another with publication place and dates, all others with gilt center device. A very acceptable copy of a scarce and important work for Arabic studies.

The
Beginning of
Demographic
Studies
Botero,
Giovanni. Relaciones universales del
mundo ... primera y segunda parte. Valladolid: Impresso por los herederos de
Diego Fernandez de Cordoua, 1603–1599. Folio (27 cm; 10.5"). [4], 207,
110 ff. (without final blank and without the maps).
$1875.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Botero (1540–1617) was an Italian thinker, priest, poet, and diplomat, and after 1580 an expelled Jesuit. His Relaciones universales del mondo, originally published 1594 to 1595 in Italian, tells of the “universal church” (i.e., Catholicism) in various parts of the world, including America, the Old World, India, the circum-Mediterranean, Africa, China, the Philippines, Japan, and Southeast Asia, but also England, Scotland, Ireland, and “the realm of Prester John.” More than a few scholars view this as one of the first demographic studies.
This first edition, second issue in Spanish is the translation of Diego de Aguiar. It is composed of the sheets of first edition of 1600–1599 with a new title-page. Printed in roman type, double-column format, it offers a liberal sprinkling of large woodcut initials, some of which are historiated.
Provenance: 19th-century private ownership stamp on verso of title-leaf; bookplate of the John Carter Brown Library (with small release stamp) on the front pastedown.
Alden & Landis, European Americana, 603/17; Sabin 6809; Palau 33704; Medina, BHA, 468. 18th-century mottled sheep, raised bands, gilt spine extra; spine gorgeously bright and covers with some abrasions. Title-page and final leaf with foremargins excised and the leaves mounted; first folio 113 with short tears repaired with with cello tape now darkened. Occasional foxing and the other odd spot or stain only; all edges red and a blue ribbon placemarker. A text volume only, this lacks the maps and is priced accordingly; it is an important and famous work with a good provenance in an otherwise very handsome copy, for the reader. (28307)

Burton's Philosophical Poetry
Burton, Richard F. The Kasîdah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî: A lay of the higher law. San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1919. Folio (31.5 cm, 12.7"). vii, [3], 52, [2] pp.
$100.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Burton's Sufi-inspired poem, with an introduction by Aurelia Henry Reinhardt and extensive endnotes. The work was printed by John Henry Nash for the Book Club of California (this being only their ninth publication), with title-page decoration and headpieces by Dan Sweeney. This is numbered copy 254 of 500 printed.
Uncut and unopened copy of a beautifully accomplished volume.
Not in Penzer, Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Burton. Publisher's quarter vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; vellum darkened, corners bumped. Pages clean. (28273)

FIRST to
Timbuktu & Back
Caillié, René Auguste. Journal d'un voyage a Temboctou et
a Jenné, dans l'Afrique Centrale, précédé d'observations faites chez les Maures Braknas, les Nalous et d'autres peuples; pendant les années 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828. Paris: L'Imprimerie Royale, 1830. 8vo (21.1 cm, 8.25"). 3 vols. I: Frontis., [4], xii, 472, [4] pp. II: [4], 426 pp. III: [4], 404, [2] pp. (lacking 5 plates and map).
$1500.00
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
First edition. Caillié, a French explorer and adventurer inspired by a boyhood love of Robinson Crusoe, spent eight months in Senegal posing as a convert to Islam and learning Arabic; he was also the first modern European traveller to make a successful voyage to Timbuktu and back — Maj. Gordon Lang preceded him to the city, but was murdered during his travel home. Caillié was
awarded the Société de Géographie de Paris prize of 10,000 francs for his completed trip, despite his description of his travels through Senegal, Mali, and the Sahara's having been met with some skepticism in his native France; the travelogue was better received in England, and very popular in translation there.
Vol. I opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the author.
Howgego, II, C2. Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. Five plates and one map lacking (frontispiece present); two leaves each with tear along inner margin, not touching text; foxed throughout but without embrittlement.
(24387)
A FAMED but UNLUCRATIVE
Polyglot Dictionary
Castell, Edmund. Lexicon heptaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Æthiopicum, Arabicum, conjunctim; et Persicum, separatim. London: Thomas Roycroft, 1669. Folio (44.9 cm, 17.6). 2 vols. in I. Frontis., [8] pp., 44 columns (43 & 44 repeated in numbering), [2] pp., 573 columns (402, 403, 421 & 422 repeated in numbering; 340, 341, 399, & 400 skipped), [1] p., 4008 columns (376–78 & 391–93 incorrectly numbered; 484–86, 538, 1936–38, 3220–25, 3773–78, & 3950–51 repeated in numbering; 487–89, 535, & 3226–3231 skipped).
$1500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition. Intended as a companion to Bishop Walton's Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, in which endeavor the author assisted, this seven-language dictionary is “probably the greatest and most perfect work of the kind ever performed by human industry and learning” according to Dr. Clarke; Dibdin says of the erudite and somewhat erratically organized Lexicon that it “has long challenged the admiration, and defied the competition, of foreigners; and . . . has raised an eternal monument of literary fame.” Castell was an orientalist who spent 18 years and (according to Dibdin) the whole of his patrimony laboring over the Lexicon, only to find the undertaking woefully unsuccessful on the market despite its much-lauded scholarship.
The frontispiece portrait was done by William Faithorne, and the title-page is printed in red and black. The text is printed first in two columns and then in three per page, and is ornamented throughout with decorative capitals. The columns are erratically numbered, but the text is complete.
Provenance: Signature on fly-leaf of Hampus Kristoffer Tullberg (Lund), 19th-century Swedish scholar of Hebrew and other languages.
ESTC R16460; Wing (rev. ed.) C1225; Vancil 46; Lowndes 386; Dibdin, I, 31–35. On Castell, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. 18th-century speckled calf, covers bordered with a darker calf band blind-rolled and then framed with single gilt fillet; spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, darker-leather raised bands gilt-stamped/blind-tooled, and compartments gilt- and blind-tooled enclosing gilt-stamped floral decorations. Binding rubbed, with leather significantly lost in top compartment and and lost also at foot. All edges marbled. Front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription as above dated 1837; title-page with old institutional pressure-stamp. Frontispiece with outer margin reinforced some time ago. One leaf slightly oversized and creased, intermittent soiling in many upper margins, one leaf with text affected but not obscured, small sections with light waterstaining to outer or upper margins; over all, a book both impressive and pleasant. Columns erratically numbered, text complete. (25792)

Liberal Arts of All Stripes
Dennie, Joseph, ed. The port folio. Volumes V & VI. Philadelphia: Smith & Maxwell, 1808. 8vo (22 cm, 8.6"). [4], 416, 416 pp.
$225.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The Port Folio, an important early American literary and political periodical, ran from 1801 through 1827. This volume comprises Vols. V and VI of the “New Series,” collecting the weekly issues from 2 Jan. through 24 Dec. 1808, including a discussion of the merits of classical studies, a treatise on “Oriental poetry,” jokes, theatrical reviews and commentary, the latest (British) legal intelligences, original poems and translations of French and Italian poems, Francis Kinloch's “Letters from Geneva and France,” an account of the health benefits of manufactured mineral waters, etc.
Provenance & Evidence of Readership: Front pastedown with early inked and pencilled inscriptions of Simon Elliot, front free endpaper with early pencilled presentation inscription of Dr. Willard Putnam, first text page with inked inscription of Simon Elliot along upper inner margin. A later hand has laid in several sheets of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein; there are occasional pencilled marks of emphasis and a few annotations. Laid-in letter from a modern bookseller noting that he is sending the present volume and will look for another.
Sabin 64182. Contemporary quarter red sheep; marbled paper all but entirely worn away from sides, spine sunned and scuffed. Some early leaves with lower corners creased or stained along inner margins and starting to separate; scattered light to mild foxing. One leaf with one paragraph excised, affecting a few lines of the biography on the reverse; pp. 29/30 of vol. VI, no. 2 excised; upper portion of pp. 409/10 of vol. VI torn away with loss of a few lines. Some pages printed slightly askew, resulting in occasional shaving of letters or even (infrequently) lines. A slightly battered copy, but still — like all Port Folios, meaty and full of just plain INTERESTING stuff. (29347)
Freystadt, M. Philosophia cabbalistica et pantheismus. Regimontii Prussorum: Borntraeger (pr. by Conradus Paschke), 1832. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.75"). xv, [1], 143, [1] pp.
$350.00
Uncommon sole edition of Freystadt’s essay on Kabbalah and on pantheistic thought, printed in Latin and Hebrew with sprinklings of Arabic and Greek. Steineschneider cites this as Freystadt’s “dissert. inaug.”
Steineschneider, Catalogus Librorum Hebraeorum, 5085. Contemporary paste paper–covered boards, spine with hand-inked title label; binding rubbed and abraded, spine with stamped shelving number. All edges stained red. Front pastedown with 19th-century private collector’s bookplate.

Arabic — Armenian — Antiochus
Hamaker, Hendrik Arent. Specimen catalogi codicum mss. orientalium bibliothecae Academiae Lugduno-Batavae ... [bound with two other works as described below]. Lugduni Batavorum: Apud S. & J. Luchtmans, 1820. 4to (24.5 cm, 9.7"). [4], viii, 264, [4] pp. [bound with] Chahan de Cirbied, Jacques M. Notice de deux manuscrits Arméniens contenant l'histoire de Mathieu Eretz ... Paris: De l'imprimerie Impériale, 1812. 4to. 92 pp. [and] Tôchon
d'Annecy, Joseph-François . Dissertation sur l'époque de la mort d'Antiochus VII évergètes sidétès, roi de Syrie, sur deux médailles antiques de ce prince ... Paris: L.G. Michaud, 1815. 4to. Frontis., 68 pp.
$1250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of this catalogue of Arabic manuscripts held by the university at Leiden, annotated by Hamaker; the text is printed in Latin and Arabic. That work is followed by one on ancient Armenian manuscripts and another on the last era of Antiochus Sidetes with reference both to numismatic and Biblical sources; these are also in their first editions.
Hamaker: Brunet, III, 26-27. Contemporary half red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and publication information; binding darkened, corners and joints lightly rubbed. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped, front free endpaper with neatly inked list of contents, half-title with small inked annotation dated 1825. Hamaker: Occasional instances of light spotting, pages otherwise clean. Chahan: Light intermittent foxing; inked marginalia in a neat hand. Tochon: Title-page with inked ownership inscription in upper margin, dated 1848. (20613)

Koran
Designed & Illustrated
by
Valenti
Angelo
Koran.
English. 1958. The Koran: Selected suras. New York: The Limited
Editions Club, 1958. 8vo. 231, [1] pp.
$275.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Translated from the Arabic by Arthur Jeffery and designed for the LEC by Valenti
Angelo with an intricate “carpet”-like title-page executed in red and blue with hand-applied
touches of real gold; with sectional title-pages that are equally but differently intricate; and with
every text page decorated with red and blue arabesque frames, motifs, and ornaments.
Binding: Also designed
by Angelo, this is accomplished in red- and blue-stamped tan cloth and incorporates
a
“wallet-like
flap” following traditional Arabic Qu'ran binding style.
Volume housed in publisher's blue cloth-covered clamshell slipcase (with a
drop-down front element), box bearing a rectangular stencilled label of gilt
applied on the cloth so “The Koran” is left set forth in the underlying
blue.
This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed by A. Colish, signed at the colophon by
Angelo. The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.
Bibliography of the Fine
Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 284. Binding and box as
above; volume pristine, slipcase showing mild shelfwear with small scuff to gilt title. A lovely
copy. (30158)

Victorian Arabica
Nicely Presented
Meredith,
George. The shaving of Shagpat. New York: Pr. by the George
Grady Press for the Limited Editions Club, 1955. 4to.
$60.00
The centenary edition of Meredith's Arabian-inspired fantasy, with an introduction by Sir Francis Meredith Meynell and illustrations by Honore Guilbeau, who signed the colophon. The
printing here is handsome, with accents and chapter indications in blue throughout and with touches of other colors — leaf green and curry. This is copy number 288 of 1500 printed.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club 260. Publisher's quarter leather over printed paper-covered sides; spine extremities slightly rubbed, in slipcase showing a bit of scraping and refurbished at top fore-edge. Very nice. (13276)

IRAQ — An
8th-Century Account
Muhammad ibn ’Umar, al-Wakidi. Libri Wakedii de Mesopotamiae expugnatae historia pars e codice Bibliothecae Gottingensis Arabico edita et annotatione illustrata. Qua scriptione ... ad orationem publicam audiendam invitat Georgius Henricus Augustus Ewald. Gottingae: sumtibus Dieterichianis, 1827. Small 4to. xxvi, 24 pp.
$900.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
This edition of 8th-century historian Muhammad ibn ’Umar's account of Iraq is based on the Arabic manuscript in the University of Goettingen, which manuscript is printed here in its entirety in Arabic. The scholarly introductory study is in Latin with some Arabic. The editor was Heinrich Ewald (1803–75).
Provenance: From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.
Evidence of Readership: A very few pencilled notes in Arabic.
19th-century German boards covered in mottled black paper with old paper spine label; ex-library with with minimal markings. In fact, a nice clean copy. (15001)

Price's History of Islam — Much Matter, a Handsome Map
Price, David. Chronological retrospect, or memoirs of the principal events of Mahommedan history, from the death of the Arabian legislator, to the accession of the Emperor Akbar, and the establishment of the Moghul Empire in Hindustaun. London: J. Booth; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown; and Black, Parry, & Kingsbury, 1821. Large 4to (28 cm, 11"). 3 vols. in 4. I: xvi, 606, [6] pp. 1 oversized, fold. col. map. II: xvi, 716 pp. III: xv, [1], 483, [1] pp. IV: [2], [485]–998 pp.
$995.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Major Price (1762–1835), an officer of the East India Company, was a notable orientalist and member of the Royal Asiatic Society. The Chronological Retrospect is his best-known and most referenced effort; the DNB says it is “the painstaking work of a genuine scholar anxious to do full justice to his authorities,” while Allibone calls it “the authority on the subjects discussed.”
The first edition (1811–21) was printed by several different hands, all in Wales, and one was a woman printer: Vol. I was done by George North of Brecknock, vol. II by Henry Hughes of Brecon, and vols. III and IV by Priscilla Hughes, also of Brecon and presumably heir to Henry. This appears to be a new issue, or, at least, the same issue with new title-pages; the preface to the first volume is dated 1811, and a note to the binder at the end of vol. III, part 2, reads, “The amended title pages to be substituted for those at present annexed to this volume” (p. 998).
Vol. I has a hand-colored oversized, very large folding map..
For the first ed., see: Allibone 1677; Lowndes 1961. On Price, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Modern light tan cloth, caramel-colored gilt calf spine labels.
Unopened and uncut except most preliminary leaves, deckle preserved on all; leaves naturally varying in size. Ex-library pressure-stamp to all four title-pages, and to dedication in the second volume; scattered stains from chemical reactions in the paper, mild foxing, printer's ink; dampstaining in the margins or at edges of some leaves, especially in first vol. and end of vol. III, part 2. Map in vol. I intact and nice, with just a negligible tear where attached at the upper hinge and one short one along a fold outside image; a few small marginal tears in vols. II and III (part 2), and a handful of naturally occurring holes not affecting text in all vols. Creasing as from some heavy object placed on top of leaves before binding (?) throughout, without tears or soil from this; clean, sound, attractive. (30218)
Famous “Medieval” Anti-Jewish Tract
Rare Translation
Samuel, Marochitanus (or Maroccanus). Ein Sendbrieff Rabbi Samuels von Israel, so Bürtig war auss der Stadt dess Konigs Morachiam, an Rabbi Isaac, Meystern der Synagogen, so in der Stadt Subjuliveta bemeltes Reichs ist : von der Jüden Zerstrewung, Ceremonien, Verblendung, vnd Vnglauben, auch welches die Sünde und Ursach sey, dasz Gottes Zorn so hart uber sie ergehe, und warumb sie in so langer Gefengnuss und Dienstbarkeit stecken müssen: so merhr als vor 500 Jahren in arabischer Sprach beschrieben, und hernach im Jahr
1239. in lateinische Sprach vertirt, nun aber durch ein Gottseligen Mann der Christenheit zu gut verdeutschet. Marpurg: Gedruckt ... Durch Paulum Egenolff, 1600. Small 4to. 59, [1] pp.
$1500.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Uncommon later printing in German of Epistola contra Judaeorum
errores, an anti-Jewish work of the 11th century. Written
originally
in Arabic by the convert Samuel Abu Nasr ibn Abbas, son
of Judah ibn Abbas of Fez, it was translated into Latin in the 14th century
by the Spanish Dominican Alfonsus Bonihominis. In its original Arabic form,
the work "claimed to prove the prophetic character of Jesus and Mohammed and
argued that too many laws were added to the Torah by the Mishnah and Gemara.
Buenhombre adapted the tract to present it as a Christian rather than Muslim
polemic" (Jewish Encyclopedia). More recent scholarship (Marsmann,
Epistel des Rabbi Samuel an Rabbi Isaak, 1971) indicates that Samuel is possibly
fictitious and Alphonsus was probably, in fact, the author of the text. Uncommon
edition: We locate only this deaccessioned copy in the U.S. and VD16 locates
only three copies in Germany.
VD16 S1581. Removed from a nonce volume, in later wrappers.
Dust-soiled. Library pressure-stamp and private owner's (old) inked signature
on title-page. A very good copy. (21113)
PLACE
AN ORDER | E-MAIL
US | GO (BACK) TO TOPIC/INTEREST
TABLE | PRB&M HOME
All material © 2012
The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts
Company