Hamish Riley-Smith

Rare Books And Manuscripts

Dominicus Germano of Silesia

Fabrica Overo Dittionario. Rome 1636

Introductory Manual to Lingua Arabica

DOMINICUS GERMANO of Silesia.
Fabrica Overo Dittionario Della lingua volgare Arabica, et Itliana, Copioso de voci; & locutoni, con osseruare lafrase dell’una lingua.

Rome, Congregationis de Propag.Fide 1636

Quarto, contemporary vellum, pp.(10) + 102, Arabic and Italian throughout, title with printers woodcut device, some browning throughout, an excellent copy.

Schnurrer, Bibliotheca Arabica, 67. Brill, Philologia Orientalis, II,224. Graf IV 177. Lambrecht 464. Copac: 3 copies only at BL, Oxford, Cambridge

FIRST EDITION of this rare Arabic manual printed in Rome at the Propoganda de Fidei Press. Dominicus was the editor of the famous Arabic-Latin dictionary printed in the same press in 1639. Father Germanus [1585-1670] succeded Obicini as Lector of Arabic and as a collaborator on the Arabic Bible project. He later stayed for a time in Persia and ended his life as a scholar in Madrid. There he left his manuscript of an unfinished Qur’an translation and grammaqtical treatises of Persian and Turkish. The Propaganda Press was founded in 1622 and in 1626 a true printing house was established together with a foundry named after the Congregatio. To its stock were added exotic types from the Stamperia Vaticana. The Press printed missals, grammars, dictionaries and Alphabeta.

£1750

Dominicus Germano of Silesia - Fabrica Overo Dittionario. Rome 1636
Dominicus Germano of Silesia - Fabrica Overo Dittionario. Rome 1636

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