ABAA California Virtual Book Fair

A chronological catalogue of 50 items
published on the occasion of the 2021 California Virtual Book Fair
Open continuously from 9am, March 4th, until 8pm, March 6th (PST).
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1Complete medical manuscript, copied during the lifetime of the author
Teshil ("Facilitation"). Ottoman medical manual.Central or Eastern Anatolia, 28 April 1408 CE = 1 Du'l-Higga 810 H.
€ 58,000.00Complete Ottoman medical manuscript, copied by the scribe Celalu'd-din Mehmud al-'Ala'i in 1408 CE, still during the lifetime of the book's author, the Anatolian religious scholar and physician Haci Pasha (known in the Arabic tradition as Haggi Basha Galalu'd-Din al-Hidr bin 'Ali bin al-Hattab al-Aydini).
The introduction (1v-2r) sets out …
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2Based on Ibn Sina's Qanun
Qanunceh ("Small Canon").Herat now Afghanistan, 1436 CE = 840 H.
InquireComplete Arabic manuscript containing the Arabic translation of the Qanunsah ("Small Canon"), originally written in Persian: a brief medical compendium compiled by the Khwarazmian polymath Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Umar al-Jaghmini and based on Ibn Sina's famous Qanun.
This abridged manual of medicine is arranged in ten parts ("maqalat", or …
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4Inscribed by a Mosul physician in 913 H (1507 CE)
Dhakhirah-i Khwarazm-Shahi.Probably Anatolia, ca. 1490 / late 15th century CE.
€ 65,000.00Al-Jurjani's important medical compendium, the first major medical text to be written in Persian. Al-Jurjani (d. 1136) "went to live in Khwarizm in 504/1110 and became attached to the Khwarizmshahs Kutb al-Din Muhammad, to whom he dedicated his 'Dhakirah' [...] His 'Dhakirah Khwarizmshahi', probably the first medical encyclopaedia written in Persian …
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7Arabic manuscript dictionary of pharmaceutical simplicia
Nazm al-Suluk wa Taqwim al-Adviyeh [An Arabic manuscript dictionary of …Ottoman Levant possibly Jerusalem, 1556 CE = Shawwal 974 H.
InquireA substantial 16th century codex on herbal medicine and pharmaceutical simplicia, constituting a reference work for medication and the application of practical remedies. The physician and astronomer Abu al-Fazl Hubaysh was given the title "al-Mutabbib" (the doctor) for the numerous medical texts he composed, including the present volume as well …
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11Precursor to Ibn Sina's Qanun: the earliest Arabic medical work to provide instructions on surgical procedure
Kitab Kamil as-Sina'a at-Tabbaiya [The Complete Book of Medical Art].Safavid Persia, 1582-1584 CE = 990-991 H.
€ 175,000.00One of the few existing complete copies of this medical milestone. Exceptionally rare: a fundamental medical work from the Golden Age of Islamic scholarship, preceding and influencing Avicenna's Qanun. Monumentally influential not only in Islamic medicine, this work even had profound impact in the West. It was first translated into Latin by Constantinus …
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14The Medicea's last production: dedication copy for Pope Paul V
[Kitab al-tasrif ta'lif al-shaykh al-Imami]. Liber Tasriphi compositio …Rome, 1610.
InquireFirst edition of this grammatical treatise of Arabic known as the "Tasrif al-Zanjani", not printed again until 1817 (in Istanbul): the final work to leave Raimondi's famous Medicea press, and the only one produced there after a hiatus of 15 years. The long hibernation phase into which the Medicea entered after printing her last book in 1595 for Pope …
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16A cross-cultural milestone, unpublished for more than 150 years: a Polish-born Turk's Osmanli Bible, produced under the auspices of a Dutch project for universal peace
Turkish translation of the New Testament. Secretarial manuscript with Ali …Constantinople, 1665.
€ 75,000.00Considered lost: a volume of Ali Ufki Bey's famous Bible translation, "the lineal ancestor of today’s Turkish Bible" (Privratsky), the last manuscript in private hands.
A project born of Protestant disappointment with the outcome of the 30 Years' War, the 17th century enterprise to translate the Bible into Turkish was informed by Christian …
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21Polyglot poems: an authorial manuscript bound for the King
Poemata anatolico-polyglotta seu plurium linguarum OO. in laudem Magni …Probably Turin, 1767.
€ 25,000.00A fine dedicatory manuscript, pre-dating the noted Hebraist's first published work: an assembly of polyglot odes by the 25-year-old scholar to the royal family of Sardinia, written in Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic, Ethopian, Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac, all with their Latin translation opposite.
De Rossi studied at Ivrea and Turin. In 1769 he was …
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26Manuscript commentary on Ibn Sina's Kitab ash-Shifa
Kitab Sharh al-Ilahiyyat ("The Book of Explanation of Theology"). Theological …Western Persia Isfahan?, ca. 1780s.
€ 9,500.00Late 18th century Arabic manuscript apparently written in Western Persia, containing a commentary on several theological propositions taken from various parts of Ibn Sina's encyclopedical Kitab al-Shifa’, the author's major work on science and philosophy, intended to "cure" or "heal" ignorance of the soul. Thus, despite its title, it is not concerned …
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31The first printing of any part of the Arabian Nights in Arabic
[Qissat al-Sindibad al-Bahri fi sab` safaratihi fi al-barr wa-al-bahr al-Hindi-Kayd …Paris, 1814.
€ 12,500.00First edition of "Sind-Bâd" and the first independent printing of any part of the Arabian Nights in Arabic. Although traditionally included in the corpus of the Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa Layla) as told by Scheherazade, it is thought that the series of stories that make up the voyages of Sindbad have older and separate origins, incorporating …
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37An exceptional series of 50 meticulously executed miniatures
A series of miniatures showing Persian scribes.Persia, mid-Qajar period 1850s CE.
€ 58,000.00An exceptional series of 50 meticulously executed miniatures, compiled and painted by an anonymous artist. 41 of the delicate watercolours represent famous calligraphers, 5 (1 in grisaille) presumably represent sufis, and one more (not coloured) shows a seated prince, while 3 miniatures (2 in grisaille) depict flowers.
The main series of calligraphers …
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38The New Testament in Ottoman Turkish: rare edition
Kitab ül-ahd il-cedid el-mensub ila rabbina Isa el-mesih [The Book of …London, 1853.
€ 3,500.00An exceedingly rare edition of Ali Ufki Bey's Turkish translation of the New Testament, almost unknown to bibliography.
Revised by Türabi Efendi from the text produced by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1827, the original translation into Ottoman Turkish was prepared by the Polish musician and linguist Wojciech Bobowski (ca. 1610-75), …
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40The Sudhoff Collection
The Sudhoff Collection of the History of Arabic Medicine, deaccessioned …Various places, 1855-1941.
€ 95,000.00A highly important ensemble of books on early Islamic medicine and science, assembled by one of the most renowned medical research institutes of its age, comprising not only rare historical and bibliographical studies, but also many first printed editions of crucial scientific texts in Arabic, frequently in the form of doctoral theses that remain …
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41The genealogy of the Arab peoples, printed in Baghdad: early lithography in the Arab world
Hadha kitab Saba'ik al-dhahab fi ma'rifat qaba'il al-'Arab [The book of …Baghdad, 1864 CE = 1280 H.
€ 15,000.00First edition: a rare and important work on the genealogy of the Arab tribes, also an early, graphically sophisticated lithographic effort from the Arab World. The "Book of Gold Bars" by the prominent Iraqi theologian and historian Suwaydi (1786-1831) is a revised and expanded interpretation of the "Dictionary of the Arab Genealogy" by the legendary …
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44Moroccan-printed Arabic edition of Euclid's "Elements"
Kitab tahrir al-usul li-Uqlidis (Commentary on Euclid's Elements).Fes Alawi Morocco, 1 Nov. 1876 CE = 13 Shawwal 1293 H.
€ 12,500.00Very rare Moroccan-printed (lithographed) Arabic edition of Euclid's famous "Elements of Geometry", the "oldest mathematical textbook in the world still in common use today" (PMM). The translation and commentary, first printed in 1594, are by the great Persian polymath Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-74), after whom the lunar crater "Nasireddin" is named.
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