Ancient oriental alphabets

Alphabets Orientaux Anciens. Caracteres et alphabets de langues mortes et vivantes.

$1,632.00

The 25 plates from Diderot's "Encyclopédie" showing the "Characters and Alphabets of Dead and Living Languages", including Arabic, Ethiopian, Coptic and several other alphabets. Letterforms are shown in a variety of majuscules and cursives.

Upper spine-end chipped, otherwise fine. Old ms. ownership on verso of first plate, partially in Greek: "ek ton biblon tou Fl. Lécluse / 1806" (i.e., Fleury de Lécluse, 1774-1845, professor of Greek and Hebrew and scholar of the Basque language). Removed from the library of the Ducs de Luynes at the Château de Dampierre: their bookplate reproducing the arms of Charles Marie d'Albert de Luynes (1783-1839), 7th Duc de Luynes, on pastedown.