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. Early 19th-century 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.
Reissue of the first edition of the Typographia Medicea published in Rome in 1591. This Arabic edition of the Gospels with Latin 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 fount, generally considered one of the first pleasing Arabic printing types.
Darlow/Moule 1637 & 1643; Graesse II, 531; Fumagalli 454-455; Nagler XI, 377 ('Typographisches Prachtwerk').
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