[Rarebooks] FS: The first western book printed in Persian - The Elsevir Press, 1639.

[Kenneth Karmiole]

Xavier, Jerome. ...HISTORIA CHRISTI PERSICE CONSCRIPTA... Hieronymo Xavier, Soc. Jesu. Latine Reddita & Animadversionibus Notata a Ludovico de Dieu. Leyden: Ex Officina Elseviriana. 1639. 4to. (24),636,(4)pp. Title in Persian and Latin. Text in Latin and Persian on opposite pages. Title page printed in red & black, with the woodcut device of The Elsevir Press. Original vellum, covers rather dirt soiled, but perfectly sound. There is a very light water stain at the bottom inner margin of the preliminary leaves, but a very good copy overall.     $2,000.00 (trade discount allowed)
This work has been called the first significant European book printed in Persian. 1639 is also the same year as the appearance of the first Persian grammar by Ludovico De Dieu.
The manuscript of this life of Christ was composed in Portuguese, and translated into Persian and Latin by the Jesuit scholar Jerome Xavier in 1602. It contains the notes of Ludovico De Dieu. See De Backer-Sommervogel, 1339, and Willems 490.

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