Forum Rare Books

First translation into English of stories from Sa'di's famous Gulistan

SA'DI SHIRAZI and Stephen SULIVAN (translator). Select fables from Gulistan, or the bed of roses. Translated from the original Persian of Sadi.
London, J. Ridley, 1774. 8vo. Modern half calf (period style), gold-tooled spine. V, [1 blank], 139, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Emblem & Songbooks English & American Literature Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature

The first-ever critical edition of an Arabic text

SCALIGER, Joseph Justus and Thomas ERPENIUS. [Kitab al-Amthal] seu proverbiorum Arabicorum centuriae duae.
Leiden, Frans van Ravelingen, 1614. 4to (16 × 20 cm). Ad 1 with a woodcut printers device on the title-page, woodcut initials and tailpieces. Ad 2 with a woodcut printers device on the title-page, woodcut tailpieces and woodcut ornamental frames around typographic Arabic initials. With:
(2) Cogitata nova de [kari] Psalm XXII, 17 & Jes. XXXIIX, 13 censurae philologorum committet ho elachistos ton philologounton.
[ca. 1615?].
(3) [BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - ARABIC]. ERPENIUS, Thomas (editor). [Risalat Bulus al-rasul ila ahl Rumija]. Pauli apostoli ad Romanos epistola, arabice.
Leiden, Typographia Erpeniana, 1615. Contemporary marbled calf. [8], 126, [2 blank]; [8]; [48] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Language & Linguistics Literature

Schultens's grammar of biblical Hebrew, printed and published in Transylvania

SCHULTENS, Albert. Institutiones ad fundamenta linguæ Hebrææ.
Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár, Klausenburg), Sándor (Alexander) Szathmári Pap, 1743. 4to. Set in roman and italic types with extensive Hebrew, incidental fraktur, Greek (2 sizes) and Arabic, and one 3-letter word in Samaritan. Contemporary gold-tooled sprinkled tanned sheepskin, each board with the Diesbach Belleroche coat of arms, probably a son of Nicolas de Diesbach Belleroche (1668-1735) in Switzerland. [30], 501, [84], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Greek & Non-Western Types Literature

First and only edition of an unrecorded 1683 grammar of and guide to the Tuscan Italian language

SEBASTIANI, Pietro de’. Nuovo metodo, che facilita la lingua Toscana disteso con regole grammaticali, ...
Rome, Paolo Moneta, 1683. Small 12mo (14 x 8 cm). Contemporary marbled wrappers. [4], 47, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,750

Italy Literature School & Textbooks

How to write a letter

SERRE, Jean Puget de la and Jan DULLAART (translator). Fatsoenlycke send-brief-schryver...
Amsterdam, Jacob Benjamijn, 1663. 12mo. With an engraved title-page (dated 1652), showing a writer at his desk, a small ornamental vignette on the title-page, an ornamental tail-piece, and some woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary overlapping vellum. 446 pp. Full description

€ 650

Education & Pedagogy Language & Linguistics Literature Netherlands

First edition of a poem lamenting the execution of a British officer during the American War of Independence

SEWARD, Anna. Monody on Major Andrè. To which are added letters addressed to her by Major Andrè in the year 1769.
Lichfield, Printed and sold by J. Jackson for the author [etc.], 1781. 4to. Half red morocco, marbled paper sides, gold-tooling on spine. IV, 47, [1] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

English & American Literature Literature USA - United States of America

Extremely rare first translation of Macbeth into Ottoman Turkish

SHAKESPEARE, William and Abdullah CEVDET (translator). [Makbet = Macbeth in Ottoman Turkish].
Cairo, Egypt, Kütübhane-i Içtihad, 1909. 8vo. With practically all text set in Arabic type. Half maroon cloth and brown decorated paper sides. [5], 153, [2] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States English & American Literature Iran / Persia Literature Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Stories by an editor of Alf layla wa-layla

SHIRWANI, Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-. Nafhat al-Yaman fi-ma yazulu bi-dhikrihi al-shajan. [= Breezes from Yemen].
Calcutta, printed by Mawlawi Kabir Ud Din Ahmad at the Urdoo Guide Press, 1881. 8vo. Original publisher's pebble-grain lilac cloth. [2], 276, [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,800

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature School & Textbooks

Richly gold-tooled French morocco in the style of "Le Gascon": includes Elichman's Greek, Latin and Arabic Tabula Cebetis and Aurea carmina Pythagoræ

SIMPLICIUS of Cilicia. Commentarius in Enchiridion Epicteti, ex libris veteribus emendatus. Cum versione Hieronymi Wolfii, et Cl. Salmasii animadversionibus, et notis quibus Philosophia Stoica passim explicatur & illustratur.
Leiden, Johannes Maire, 1640. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With three title-pages. Set in roman, Greek and Arabic types. Contemporary French pointillé binding in the style of "Le Gascon", richly gold-tooled in concentric panels on both covers, and in the six compartments of the spine, the second with the title. [20], 332, [12]; [1], [1 blank], 329, [23]; [34], 88, 15 pp. Full description

€ 9,750

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Bindings Classical Antiquity Greek & Non-Western Types Greek & Roman Classics Literature Philosophy & Esotericism

Hebrew for beginners, including alphabets of meruba, rabbinical, Yiddish and script Hebrew types

SOMMERHAUSSEN, Hartog. Hebreeuwsch spel- en lees-boekje voor eerstbeginnenden.
Amsterdam, Belinfante & Comp., J. van Embden & son, S.A. Proops, 5570 [=] 1810. 2 parts in 1 volume. Small 8vo (15.5 x 9.5 cm). With the authenticating oval stamp at the foot of the last page of the main text in part 2. Set in roman and italic type with 3 sizes of (sephardic) meruba Hebrew plus alphabets of rabbinical (semi-cursive), Yiddisch and script Hebrew types, and printed on Dutch wove paper. Publisher's original yellow, printed paper wrappers over thin boards. 24, [1], [1 blank]; 28, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description