The early days of Arabic language printing in Europe

[Qur'an - excerpts]. Warner, Levin. Compendium historicum eorum quae Muhammedani de Christo et praecipuis aliquot religionis Christianae capitibus tradiderunt.

€ 4,500.00

Only edition: a rare attempt to glean stories and sayings of Christ and early Christian church leaders from Arabic sources, in particular from the Qur'an - a subject matter which required the use of interspersed quotations, translations, and commentaries in Arabic and Latin. Warner was a student of Golius and L'Empereur; he was offered to succeed the latter as Professor of Hebrew, but chose to remain in Istanbul, where he was appointed Resident of the States General of the Netherlands. His large collection of manuscripts forms the cornerstone of the Oriental collections of Leiden's University Library.

"The main work (38 pp.) consists of quotations mainly in Arabic, with translation and commentary; an appendix sets forth various religious tenets in Arabic, Persian or Turkish with translations. Warner's sources are given as the 'Kitab al-Kassaf' and the 'Gulistan'" (Smitskamp). "Aux pp. 39-56 est un Appendix miscellaneorum theologicorum" (Chauvin).

A fine example of early Arabic typesetting from the Dutch Golden Age. The printer, Joannes Maire (d. ca. 1657), cooperated closely with Leiden University and is remembered as the publisher of Descartes and a personal friend of the Dutch orientalist Thomas van Erpe (1584-1624).