Early Arabic grammar

Metoscita, Pietro, SJ. Institutiones linguae Arabicae. Ex diversis Arabum monumentis collectae, & ad quammaximam fieri potuit brevitatem, atque oridinem revocatae.

€ 8,500.00

Rare, early introduction to and grammar of the Arabic language: a compilation based on Arab sources by the Syrian Jesuit Metoscita. "The work again contains laudatory poems in four languages by Donatus. It is dedicated by the publisher Paulinus to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, who as Curator of the Sacra Congregatio had ordered its publication. Paulinus had already recently published two other Arabic grammars in Rome, a large one by Martelotti (1620) and a small one by Scialac (1622). The author, Petrus Al-Matusi, was one of the first pupils of the Maronite College in Rome [...] On p. 227 of the grammar we find one of the first examples of a classical Arabic poem quoted and translated [...] The work is excellently printed with the 16pt Arabic types of Savary de Brèves. At the end a grammatical analysis of Psalm 34 is given following the example of Bellarmino's Hebrew grammar" (Smitskamp). "After the demise of the Medici Oriental Press, Arabic printing in Rome was revived by the French scholar-diplomat François Savary de Brèves, who commissioned the design and production of an Arabic fount of an outstanding elegance and beauty. Much has been written on this type-face, which was evidently based directly on Arab or Turkish specimens of calligraphy acquired by Savary while serving in the Ottoman Empire: the punch-cutting, however, was probably executed in Rome [...] This celebrated type-face, which later passed to the Imprimerie Royale, was the mainstay of Arabic typography in France until the late 19th century [...] It likewise influenced the Arabic founts of the Press of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, which had a monopoly of Arabic printing in Rome from 1622 onwards, and at first employed Paulin, the former associate of both Raimondi and Savary de Brèves" (Roper, p. 144-146).

Slight browning and brownstaining throughout due to paper; 18th or early 19th century marginalia and notes on flyleaves; ownership "J. Venturi" to title page.