An archbishop's copy of Muslim sayings

[Galland, Antoine]. Orientaliana, ou les bons mots des Orientaux. Traduction nouvelle de leurs ouvrages en Arabe, en Persan & en Turc, avec des remarques.

€ 3,500.00

The first book published by the French orientalist Antoine Galland (1646-1715), soon to be famous for his influential translation of Alf Layla wa-Layla. This copy is housed in the custom binding of the archbishop of Narbonne, Le Goux de la Berchère (1647-1719). Galland is synonymous with the introduction of Muslim folk tales to the Christian West; this less-studied title was originally published as "Paroles remarquables, bons mots et maximes des orientaux" in 1694.

"Galland, professor of Arabic at the Collège de France since 1709, had made three journeys to Turkey, the Levant and Palestine, and approached the Orient without prejudice and with an open mind. Following the example of Plutarch's Apophthegmata and the anecdote collections of Valerius Maximus, he set about collecting from Arabic, Persian, and Turkish works, such as the chronicles of Makin, of Bar Hebraeus, of Mirchond, from the Matla' us-sa'dain of Abdarrazzaq, from the Tag ut-tavarikh of Hodsha Effendi, from Sa'adi's Gulistan, from Latifi and other sources, remarkable sayings to show his readers that the orientals did not rank behind the West for wit, powers of observation, and pithiness of expression. To these he appended maxims taken from the collections of sayings published by Erpenius and Golius" (cf. Fück).

This copy boasts ownership by two French archbishops. A doctor of theology, Charles Le Goux de la Berchère became archbishop of Narbonne in 1703. He owned one of the most important libraries of his era, and a considerable part of his collection passed to his successor in the archbishopric of Narbonne, René François de Beauvau du Rivau, whose handwritten ex-libris "Mgr de Beauvau" can be found on the title-page. A large part of this collection subsequently entered the Toulouse Library.

Although extant in several editions, Galland's first work is very rare; Fück reports that he knows it only from the reprinted text in the supplement to d'Herbelot's Bibliothèque orientale (1780).