First edition of the Pentateuch in Arabic by Thomas van Erpe (Erpenius)
First edition of the Pentateuch in Arabic by Thomas van Erpe (Erpenius)
First edition of the Pentateuch in Arabic by Thomas van Erpe (Erpenius)
First edition of the Pentateuch in Arabic by Thomas van Erpe (Erpenius)
First edition of the Pentateuch in Arabic by Thomas van Erpe (Erpenius)
First edition of the Pentateuch in Arabic by Thomas van Erpe (Erpenius)
First edition of the Pentateuch in Arabic by Thomas van Erpe (Erpenius)
First edition of the Pentateuch in Arabic by Thomas van Erpe (Erpenius)

First edition of the Pentateuch in Arabic 1622

Thomas van Erpe (Erpenius)

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  • About the artwork
    Turat Musa al-Nabi alayhi al-salam id est Pentateuchus Mosis Arabicè.
    Leiden, Thomas Erpenius for Johannes Maire, 1622.
    4to.
    With the title in a woodcut architectural frame. Contemporary vellum.

    "First printing of the Pentateuch in Arabic characters" (Smitskamp). Edited by Thomas Erpenius and printed with his influential nashk Arabic types, cut under his direction by Arent Corsz. Hogenacker in Leiden. It gives the text of a 13th-century translation of the Pentateuch in the Maghreb dialect (spoken in Mauritania). Erpenius was one of the most distinguished orientalists and by far the best Arabist of his day. He published an influential Arabic grammar and several excellent critical editions. His own private printing office, equipped with Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopic and Turkish type, produced its first works as early as 1615.
    With bookplate, owner's inscription and library stamp of Verplanck Colvin (1847-1920). Occasional spots, some leaves with a minor waterstain in the upper or lower margin, nor affecting the text. A good copy, with generous margins. Binding slightly soiled and with a restoration to the front inner hinge, but otherwise good.
    Breugelmans 1622-2; Darlow & Moule 1645; Smitskamp, Philologia orientalis 86.
  • About the artist
    Thomas van Erpe/Thomas Erpenius (1584, Gorinchem – 1624, Leiden), also known as Thomas van den Erpe, was a famous Dutch orientalist. After studying oriental languages - Scaliger advised him to do so – and theology at Leiden, he travelled in Europe. Staying in Paris he made friends with Casaubon, a celebrated classical scholar and philologist. In Paris he also took lessons in Arabic and in Venice he studied Turkish, Persic and Ethiopian languages.

    Erpenius was appointed professor of Arabic and other oriental languages at the Leiden University in 1613. He set up a printing office there for Arabic and other oriental languages. He printed his first edition of Luqman’s fables as his first trial publication (without vowel points for Arabic types). The annotations he made for his own copy were incorporated in the second edition ( with vowel points) of 1636. Lukman’s animal fables were an important part of pre-Islamic Arabic culture and are still popular today. Erpenius’ library was transferred to Cambridge University Library in 1632. He produced many works, among others grammars of several oriental languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldean, Syrian.

Artwork details