Xavier´s Historia Christi Persicae 1639 and more
Klubbat för:
10000 SEK
Estimate
5 000-6 000 SEK
Description
PERSIA (TWO WORKS BOUND IN ONE VOLUME). XAVIER, HIERONYMO (JEROME) - DE DIEU, LUDOVICUS (ed.). Historia Christi Persice conscripta, simulque multis modis contaminata... Latine reddita & animadversionibus notata a Ludovico de Dieu. Lugduni Batavorum (Leyden, Ex Officina Elzeviriana) 1639.
Small 4:o (200x146 mm.). (24), (1)-636, (4) pp. Title printed in red and black with woodcut printer´s device. Title and first 4 leaves with some dampstaining. Minor foxing. Some browning. Old signature on title dated 1735. Willems 490, Berghman 74.
BOUND WITH: DE DIEU, LUDOVICUS. Rudimenta linguae persicae... Accedunt duo prior capita Geneseos, ex persica translatione Iac. Tawusi. Lugduni Batavorum (Ex Officina Elseviriana) 1639.
Small 4:o. (193x150 mm.). (8), 1-95, (1 blank) pp. Title printed in red and black with woodcut printer´s device. Title and first 4 leaves partly dampstained in lower part. Willems 477, Berghman 694.
Contemporary vellum, slightly worn, spine with manuscript title.
Dieu, Louis (Ludovicus) de (1590-1642), Dutch Orientalist. In 1635 two Persian texts fell into his hands, which further stimulated his interest in the language. They contained lives of Christ and St. Peter, originally written in Portugese by the Jesuit priest Jerome Xavier (1549-1617) and then translated into Persian at the command of the Mughal emperor Akbar (q.v., Storey, I, pp. 163-66). De Dieu published both texts together with a Latin translation and annotations, intending to correct what he viewed as "misrepresentations" of Christian beliefs on the part of the Catholic missionary (Historia Christi, and Historia S. Petri, Leiden, 1639). At the request of the printers of these books he also wrote an elementary grammar (Rudimenta linguae Persicae, Leiden, 1639), with the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis from the Persian Pentateuch of Rabbi Tawus attached as reading material. It is a small book of eighty-two pages which describes the basic morphological rules of Persian in four chapters (the elements of the Persian language, the verbs, nouns and pronouns, particles) according to the categories of classical grammar. However, occasionally he also turned his attention to the analytical structure of the Persian language, in particular in those cases where parallels could be drawn with the Dutch language. His work was the first Persian grammar published in Europe. (Encyclopaedia Iranica).
From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013).
Auktionsnummer:
6162
Date:
2016-12-20