[BIBLIA ARABICA.] Evangelium Sanctum Domini nostri Jesu Christi conscriptum a quatuor Evangelistis sanctis. [(Colophon at the end of the preliminaries:) Florence, Typographeus Linguarum exhoticarum. 1774.]
Folio. Contemporary Italian half vellum over marbled board, spine ornamented and lettered in ink; pp. [viii], 9-462, [2], with 149 large woodcuts in the text using 67 woodblocks by L. Norsini after drawings by A. Tempesta; minor rubbing to extremities, traces of bookplate removal inside front cover, browning to various degrees of several portions and leaves; worming to several gatherings in the margins far from printed surface, first and last leaves with tiny flaws; and entirely uncut and crisp copy, printed on strong paper, complete with half-title.
Second reissue, seemingly comprising the original sheets of the first edition of the Typographia Medicea, published in Rome in 1591. This Arabic edition of the Gospels with Latin interlinear text was the first publication of the publishing house founded by Ferdinand de Medici, which was the first to publish Christian religious works in oriental languages with the aim of converting Muslims. The type used is Robert Granjon's famous large font, generally considered one of the first pleasing Arabic printing types.
As a means of proselytizing among Muslims this publication was not very useful, because in Islam religious text are not illustrated. It might have been more applauded by the Arabic Eastern Churches, as the publisher avoided the depiction of the Crucifixion, in compliance with the teachings of the Monophysites. In the late 16th century, the Medici gained influence in the Lebanon, and made themselves protectors of the Maronites and at the beginning of the 17th century the Druze Emir Fakhr al-Din became a powerful protegee of the Medici, ruling over a vast territory.
In the preface 'to the Phil-Arabic reader' of the 1774 preliminaries the editor Caesar Malamineus hints at these now old relations between the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Lebanon. He refers as well to the oriental scholar and Maronite Petrus Benedictus (Pietro Benedetti, Butrus Mubarak) who taught at Pisa University.
Darlow/Moule 1637 & 1643; Graesse II, 531; Fumagalli 454-455; Nagler XI, 377 ('Typographisches Prachtwerk').
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