Pfeiffer, August. Jahr-Opfer, welches dem durchleuchtigsten, hochgebohrnen Fürsten und Herrn, Hn. Johann Georgen dem Andern, Hertzogen zu Sachsen, Jülich, Cleve und Berg [...] bey Eintretung des sechszehn hundert und siebentzigsten Jahrs nach der Heilbringenden Geburt Christi, durch einen unterthänigsten Glückwunsch, in funfzehen Haupt- und auswertigen Sprachen [...] abstattet M. Augustus Pfeiffer [...].

€ 1,500.00

Only edition; one of several variant issues.

A congratulatory publication by the prolific Saxon oriental scholar August Pfeiffer (1640-98) who was said to know seventy languages. The present rare work is dedicated to the Duke of Saxony Johann Georg II on the occasion of his 15th anniversary as Elector. It contains 15 celebratory poems in the world's principal languages German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew (with Latin literal translation), Chaldaic (with Latin transliteration and literal translation), in the Jerusalem dialect, in Syriac (with Latin literal translation), Samaritan, Arabic, Ethiopian, Farsi, Ottoman Turkish, Coptic, Armenian, and Chinese (all with Latin transliteration and literal translation). The end is brought up by a "fusa vacui" (or stopgap), namely verse 3 of Psalm 113 in no fewer than 35 different languages (Hebrew, Chaldaic, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopian, Samaritan, Farsi, Ottoman Turkish, Armenian, Coptic, Iberian, Greej, Latin, Italian, Sardinian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Saxon, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, English, Scots, Irish Gaelic, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, Chinese, Nahuatl, Inuit, and Quechua.

Browned throughout due to paper; binding loosened; old ownership to title-page and page numbers throughout, but trimmed rather closely. This copy was bound from a defective set of sheets: several leaves (3 and 4 in each gathering) show a hole through the middle of the page, resulting in loss of text to several poems (mainly affecting Chaldaic, Arabic, Turkish, and Coptic).