Hesketh and Ward Ltd.

BELLARMINO, Roberto Francesco Romolo, Cardinal and Saint. Doctrina Christiana...nunc primum ex Italico idiomate in Arabicum, iussu S.D.N. pauli V. Pont. Max. translata. Per Victorium Scialae Accurensem, & Gabrielem Sionitam Ediensem, Maronitas e Monte Libano..., (Rome, ex typographia Sauariana excudebat Stephanus Paulinus, 1613)

8vo. 96ff. Woodcut arms on ?1v, engraved arms, probably the author's, on ?8v, text in roman and arabic letter, A FINE COPY in contemporary limp vellum, 6 thumb-tags.

FIRST EDITION IN ARABIC of Bellarmine's extraordinarily popular Doctrina Christiana, an important Jesuit book used for the conversion to catholicism of both other sects of Christians and of unbelievers. The Doctrina was first published in Italian in 1603 and was translated into, among other languages, Armenian, Albanian, Greek, Serbo-Croat, Aramaic, Hebrew, Georgian, Roumanian, Tagalog, Church Slavonic and Syriac. This edition is rare and is the first book to use Francois Savary's fine arabic type.

BL STC II, p.754; De Backer-Sommervogel I, col.1188

£2000

This item is listed on Bibliopoly by Hesketh and Ward Ltd.; click here for further details.