![NAFZAWI, Umar ibn Muhammad. Cheikh Nefzaoui. [The Perfumed Garden.] Translated by Auguste Regnault. Algiers: [for Auguste Regnault] 1850 [but 1876].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_10773_0137_001(nafzawi_umar_ibn_muhammad_cheikh_nefzaoui_the_perfumed_garden_translat012410).jpg?w=1)
![NAFZAWI, Umar ibn Muhammad. Cheikh Nefzaoui. [The Perfumed Garden.] Translated by Auguste Regnault. Algiers: [for Auguste Regnault] 1850 [but 1876].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_10773_0137_000(nafzawi_umar_ibn_muhammad_cheikh_nefzaoui_the_perfumed_garden_translat125728).jpg?w=1)
Details
NAFZAWI, Umar ibn Muhammad. Cheikh Nefzaoui. [The Perfumed Garden.] Translated by Auguste Regnault. Algiers: [for Auguste Regnault] 1850 [but 1876].
Quarto (260 x 200 mm). Lithographed calligraphy throughout. With the blank frontispiece leaf with large watermark of a phallic butterfly in Arabic calligraphy; title page with a cipher printed in gilt at the foot. 14 lithographs on grey-blue paper, illustrations throughout. (Some pages loose these with some wear at the edges, occasional marginal soiling, some spotting.) Contemporary half sheep over marbled boards by Galmiche of Algiers, with label, flat spine ruled and lettered in gilt (corners worn, edges rubbed, spine ends chipped, sides scuffed). Provenance: Schmidt (signature dated Algiers 3 October 1883, recording the cost of 100 francs bound) – DMK Collection (small stamp).
VERY RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST TRANSLATION INTO ANY EUROPEAN LANGUAGE of The Perfumed Garden, the celebrated 15th-century manual of Arab erotology. One of only 35 copies printed, this one number 11, and in a contemporary Algerian binding. Regnault’s translation formed the basis of all other early translations including Richard Burton’s English version of 1886. The identity of the translator was confirmed by the original manuscript found in the Nordmann collection. However Nordmann did not have this very rare first edition; AE and ABPC record none having sold at auction; WorldCat lists only two copies: at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the British Library, the later an incomplete copy with all the plates defaced or removed. Dutel A-574; Eros invaincu 71; Gay-Lemonnyer II, 696; Pia Enfer, 682-685.
Quarto (260 x 200 mm). Lithographed calligraphy throughout. With the blank frontispiece leaf with large watermark of a phallic butterfly in Arabic calligraphy; title page with a cipher printed in gilt at the foot. 14 lithographs on grey-blue paper, illustrations throughout. (Some pages loose these with some wear at the edges, occasional marginal soiling, some spotting.) Contemporary half sheep over marbled boards by Galmiche of Algiers, with label, flat spine ruled and lettered in gilt (corners worn, edges rubbed, spine ends chipped, sides scuffed). Provenance: Schmidt (signature dated Algiers 3 October 1883, recording the cost of 100 francs bound) – DMK Collection (small stamp).
VERY RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST TRANSLATION INTO ANY EUROPEAN LANGUAGE of The Perfumed Garden, the celebrated 15th-century manual of Arab erotology. One of only 35 copies printed, this one number 11, and in a contemporary Algerian binding. Regnault’s translation formed the basis of all other early translations including Richard Burton’s English version of 1886. The identity of the translator was confirmed by the original manuscript found in the Nordmann collection. However Nordmann did not have this very rare first edition; AE and ABPC record none having sold at auction; WorldCat lists only two copies: at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the British Library, the later an incomplete copy with all the plates defaced or removed. Dutel A-574; Eros invaincu 71; Gay-Lemonnyer II, 696; Pia Enfer, 682-685.
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