first edition
1697 · Paris
by Herbelot de Molainville, Barthélemy d'
Paris: par la Compagnie des Libraires, 1697. First edition, folio, pp. [32], 1059, [1]; title page printed in red and black, woodcut ornaments and initials; full contemporary calf, gilt-decorated spine in 7 compartments, red morocco label in 1; edges a little worn, a few minor tears and dampstains in the text, but in all, a very good, sound copy. Manuscript inscription at the top of the title page reads: "Monasterii S. Germani a pratis Congregationis S. Maur: 1698." Based on the immense Arabic bibliography (the Kashf al-Zunun) of Hadji Khalfa (Katip Çelebi), of which it is largely an abridged translation, but it also contains the substance of a vast number of other Arabic and Turkish compilations and manuscripts. Four editions of this encyclopedia on the culture and history of the Near East were printed, the last being 1781-83. Atabey Sale, 563: "Herbelot spent the last thirty years of his life working on his Bibliothèque orientale, a landmark in Arabic studies which was unfinished at his death and completed and published two years later by the orientalist Antoine Galland in 1697. He knew a range of languages, including Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Aramaic, Syriac, and Hebrew, and was familiar with their literature and history, of which this work forms an encyclopaedia." A supplement compiled by Claude de Visdelou wasn't published until 1780. James Ford Bell Catalogue cites the 1781-83 edition only.
(Inventory #: 42959)