Islamic Culture / Arabic Printing & Calligraphy

AL-ZAMAKHSHARI, Abu al Qasim Mahmoud ibn Omar (Joseph von HAMMER-PURGSTALL, ed.). Samachschari's Goldene Halsbänder. Als Neujahrsgeschenk arabisch und deutsch.
Vienna, widow of A. Strauss, 1835. 8vo. With two identical plates showing the golden necklace around a calligraphic Arabic inscription, the necklace hand-coloured in gold and the inscription in blue, as a frontispiece for both the Arabic and the German text (on the first and the last page). The Arabic title is incorporated into a printed circular medallion with decorative points at the head and foot on the first page, and the main Arabic text opens on the back of the same leaf with an elaborate headpiece. Text set in German and Arabic. Contemporary green calf (spine faded to brown), with a gold- and blind-stamped frame on each board. [1], [1 blank], 54 pp. (German text); 27, [1] ll. (Arabic text). Full description

AL-SUYUTI, Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr. De proprietatibus, ac virtutibus medicis animalium, plantarum, ac gemmarum, tractatus triplex.
Paris, Sébastien et Gabriel Cramoisy, 1647. 8vo. With 2 woodcut headpieces, a woodcut tailpiece and woodcut decorate initials, plus decorations built up from arabesque typographic ornaments. Set in roman and italic type with a few words in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and Syriac. Contemporary vellum with manuscript spine label (faded). [24], 179, [17] pp. Full description

AL-ZAMAKHSHARI and Jens Peter BROCH. Al-Mufassal, opus de re grammatica Arabicum.
Oslo, W.C. Fabritius, 1859. 8vo. Near contemporary cloth with title in gold on spine, covered with protective plastic. 229, [5] pp. Full description

BURTON, Sir Richard Francis. Falconry in the valley of the Indus.
London, Van Voorst, 1852. 8vo. With a tinted lithographed frontispiece, 3 plates and with an 8-page publishers catalogue at the end. Original publisher's cloth. [16], 107, [1]; 8 pp. Full description

CAÑES, Francisco. Gramatica Arabigo-Española, vulgar, y literal. Con un diccionario Arabigo-Español, en que se ponen las voces mas usuales para una conversacion familiar, con el texto de la doctrina Cristiana en el idioma Arabigo.
Madrid, Don Antonio Perez de Soto, 1775. 4to. With Perez de Soto's device on the title-page. Set in roman, italic and Arabic type. Contemporary mottled sheepskin. [1], [1 blank], [14], 272, [5], [2 blank], XVII pp. Full description

CARLYLE, Joseph Dacre. Specimens of Arabian poetry, from the earliest time to the extinction of the khalifphat, with some account of the authors.
Cambridge, Printed by John Burges printer to the university, 1796. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved sheet with musical notation. Contemporary brown calf with a later spine. [8], IX, [1 blank], 180; [2], 71, [1 blank], [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

COLOM, Jacob Aertsz. [Description de la mer méditerranée].
[Amsterdam, ca. 1670]. Folio (29 x 45 cm). With 9 double-page engraved charts only, each sheet ca. 44 × 55 cm, each mounted on stiff paper with maps back-to-back, with thick red and black ink borderlines. 8 of 9 maps are by Colom, numbered 2-9 in the plates from; plate 1 has been replaced with Johannes de Rams map of the Mediterranean: "Paskaart vande Middelandsche Zee In twee deelen vertoont". Contemporary stiff paper wrappers, with a manuscript label pasted upside down on the back wrapper, reading: "Carta Marinaresca del Mar Mediterraneo". Full description

DIEU, Louis de. Animadversiones sive commentarius in quatuor evangelia, in quo collatis, Syri imprimis, Arabis, evangelii Hebræi, Vulgati, Erasmi & Bezæ versionibus ...
Leiden, Ex officina Bonaventura & Abraham Elzevir, 1631. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page (le Solitaire), three woodcut decorated initials, two woodcut headpieces and one woodcut tailpiece. Ad 2 with a frame built up from typographical ornaments on the title-page, three woodcut decorated initials, a woodcut headpiece, plus eight headpieces and two tailpieces built up from typographical ornaments. With: (bound before ad 1): (2) CHRISTEN, Johannes. Speculum harmonicum, hoc est: Genesis et analysis harmoniæ quatuor evangelistarum, synoptica; perpetuâ dichotomiâ illustrata, secundùm seriem temporum, locorum & rerum gestarum accuratissimam ... Bern, Georgius Sonnleitnerus, 1642.
Contemporary blind-tooled vellum with overhanging fore-edge, with the manuscript title on the head of the spine, blue edges. [16], 87, [1 blank]; [16], 548, [19], [1 blank] pp. Full description

DORN, Bernard. [21 autograph letters, signed, to Marie-Félicité Brosset].
Saint Petersburg, ca. 1840-1879.
With: (2) [Manuscript chronological numbered list of 34 publications by Dorn, 1843-1865].
[Saint Petersburg, ca. 1865].
8vo (letters, mostly 21 x 13.5 cm) and folio (list of publications). Letters in French with an occasional (Persian?) word in Arabic script, written in black ink on paper, some with the address on the outside and one with Dorn's (Persian?) red wax seal in Arabic script. 20 letters [4] pp. each (some including blanks); 1 letter [1, 1 blank] pp.; list of publications [4] pp. Full description

EGE, Otto F (compiler & author of the annotations). [Drop-title:] Fifteen original oriental manuscript leaves of six centuries. [Binding title:] Fifteen original oriental manuscripts.
[Cleveland, Ohio?], [Cleveland Institute of Art or Western Reserve University?], [ca. 1952]. 15 manuscript leaves (in one case a fragment of a scroll) of various formats and sizes, some glazed (see the detailed list of contents for specific dimensions), 7 written on straight-forward laid paper (European and non-European), 6 more problematic (probably all non-European), 1 on straight-forward wove paper (no. 14, supposedly made in Russia) and one on vellum (no. 7), most rubricated and/or decorated in various colours, some decorated or highlighted in gold. Each manuscript leaf is mounted (hinged on one edge to allow access to both sides of the leaf) in a passe-partout (46.5 x 33 cm) and each has a letterpress slip (10 x 18 cm) with explanatory text tipped onto the foot of the passe-partout. The publication has no title-page but includes a letterpress folio leaf that serves as a table of contents and has the drop-title given above (the present copy contains two copies of that contents leaf). The display typeface used in the letterpress leaves (and on the portfolio) is the 1938 Libra by the Dutch designer Sjoerd de Roos, inspired by uncial manuscripts. Publishers original portfolio (48.5 x 34 x 4.5 cm) covered with black cloth with on-lays in black and red on the front and the authors name in white and title in red on the spine, with three pairs of black ties (one on the inside) and a label on the inside of the right black flap giving information about the limited edition: "Edition limited to forty numbered sets of which this is No 33". [1] leaf (plus a duplicate) plus 15 original manuscript leaves mounted in white passe-partouts. Full description