INTRODUCTIO IN CHALDAICAM LINGUAM, SYRIACAM, ATQUE ARMENICAM, & DECEM ALIAS LINGUAS. [INTRODUCTION TO CHALDAIC, SYRIAC, ARMENIAN, AND TEN OTHER LANGUAGES]

first edition

1539 · Pavia

by (EARLY LINGUISTIC WORKS - SYRIAC AND ARMENIAN). (EARLY MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS). ALBONESI, TESEO AMBROGIO

Pavia: Giovanni Maria Simonetta, 1539. FIRST EDITION, Second Issue. 210 x 147 mm. (8 1/2 x 5 3/4"). 215 leaves.
Restrained 19th century crimson morocco by Trautz-Bauzonnet (stamp-signed on front turn-in), raised bands, spine with gilt text, wide turn-ins gilt, marbled endpapers, all edges marbled and gilt. A small leather label with the year affixed to the spine. With two woodcuts depicting the "phagotus" instrument. Title with an attractive pictorial woodcut border. Printed in black and red. Occasional early ink marginalia; early ink ownership inscription to lower margin of colophon: "Hieronymi Pinzoni Cantoris Cremon[ensis] et p[rae]positi." An (truncated) Armenian alphabet is inscribed in ink on the rear flyleaf, dated March 28, 1540. Mortimer 20; Adams I, 957; Brunet I, 229; Graesse I, 59. Spine and edges slightly darkened, joints a bit rubbed (but without any cracking, and the wear skillfully retouched). Only scattered very minor stains and soiling--quite a clean copy internally, the leaves very fresh.

This volume features one of the strangest combinations of a gravely serious treatise and an oddball curiosity: it comprises a landmark study of linguistics as the first European work concerning Syriac and Armenian--along with 36 other languages; and, incongruously, it also describes and pictures a contemporaneous musical instrument whose design was sufficiently peculiar to limit its interest to just one person, the book's dedicatee. Our work originated when Teseo Ambrogio degli Albonesi (1469-1540), a lawyer, scholar, and canon of the church of Saint John of the Lateran, was tasked with the publication of a Syriac manuscript psalter brought by a Maronite contingent to the Fifth Lateran Council. This was not merely a minor exercise in church outreach: 16th century scholars believed Syriac (as a derivative of Aramaic) to be the language of Christ. While the present work is of great interest because of its Syriac and Armenian content, Ambrogio did not limit himself to those tongues: the text includes in particular short studies of Samaritan, Arabic, Coptic, Cyrillic, and Ethiopic. Of these, some alphabets are provided in print (in types specifically designed by Ambrogio), and others are supplied in manuscript in spaces left in the text for that purpose. Ambrogio's sample texts range from simple alphabets to biblical passages to a letter purportedly from the Devil(!) In addition to the serious work done by our volume, the text here deviates to include a fascinating musical surprise. Dedicated to the author's uncle, Afranio degle Albonesi (ca. 1465 - ca. 1540), a fellow church canon and apparently something of an eccentric, the work includes an illustrated section on the "phagotus," a musical instrument of Afranio's own invention. Described by composer John Pickard as a "remarkable monstrosity," the phagotus combined features of the bagpipe and the bassoon. It never gained widespread popularity, though not for lack of trying on Afranio's part--he once even performed with it for the duke of Ferrara, Alfonso d'Este, at a banquet in Mantua. Our copy, in a pleasing though unassuming binding by one of the foremost 19th century French workshops, was owned during its early history by yet another prominent churchman--Girolamo Pinzoni (d. 1554), canon of the church of San Leonardo in Cremona.. (Inventory #: ST20126)

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