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ERPENIUS, Thomas (1584-1624). Historia Josephi Patriarchae ex Alcorano, Arabicè. Cum triplici versione Latina, & scholiis Thomae Erpenii, cujus & Alphabetum Arabicum praemittitur. Leiden: Ex Typographia Erpeniana linguarum Orientalium, 1617.
4o (200 x 159 mm). Collation: A-S4. Title within architectural woodcut border, woodcut printer's device at end. Contemporary vellum (minor staining and light rubbing to edges). Provenance: Francis Gomar (1563-1641, Dutch Calvinist leader and professor of Theology at Leiden, PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION by Erpenius); purchased from Emil Offenbacher, 17 April 1961.
FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY inscribed by Erpenius on fly leaf in the back: "Clarissimo viro D.D. Francisco Gomaro Erpenius d.d." FIRST PRINTED EDITION OF ANY PART OF THE KORAN printed in its original language. The editor and translater of this work was the Dutch scholar Thomas Erpenius, who was the professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Leiden. The Arabic text is printed in the characters which Erpenius had caused to be cut for the printing press he had established in his own house. They were sold after his death to Elsevier. Binark-Eren 1045, Lambrecht 2706.
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FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY inscribed by Erpenius on fly leaf in the back: "Clarissimo viro D.D. Francisco Gomaro Erpenius d.d." FIRST PRINTED EDITION OF ANY PART OF THE KORAN printed in its original language. The editor and translater of this work was the Dutch scholar Thomas Erpenius, who was the professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Leiden. The Arabic text is printed in the characters which Erpenius had caused to be cut for the printing press he had established in his own house. They were sold after his death to Elsevier. Binark-Eren 1045, Lambrecht 2706.
Sale room notice
This is the first obtainable edition of any part of the Koran in its original language. A unique copy of a sixteenth-century printing (Venice: Alessandro Paganini, 1537-38) is located in an Italian institution.