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[BIBLIA ARABICA]. Evangelium Sanctum Domini nostri Iesu Christi conscriptum a quatuor Evangelistis sanctis, id est Matthaeo, Marco, Luca et Iohanne.

Rome, Typographia Medicea., 1590 (-1591).

Folio (352 x 240 mm.), 364 pages; “Arabic title preceding Latin. Double-rule border on title-page and each page of text. One hundred forty-nine woodcuts, by repetition of sixty-seven blocks, approximately 100 x 125 mm. Fourteen of these blocks are signed with the monograms of Antonio Tempesta as designer and Leonardo Parasole as cutter, and four other blocks have Parasole's signature alone. An early attribution of the “LP” monogram to Luca Penni is incorrect. […] Printed in Arabic throughout, with a colophon in roman letter. […] The Arabic types are those designed by Robert Granjon for Domenico Basa, and Granjon was employed by the Typographia as type designer in the last years of his life.” (Mortimer) A few leaves are browned, as usual, but a very fine copy, untrimmed in old paper wrappers, modern vellum protective chemise. Our copy is a duplicate from the Imperial Library in Paris with red stamps at the beginning and at the end and a release stamp dated 1874.

First edition of the Gospels in Arabic and first book printed by the Typographia Medicea.“… the Typographia Medicea often referred to as the Medici Oriental Press, operated in Rome between the last decades of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century under the patronage of Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, later Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587. The press was established in 1584 by Ferdinando, supported by Pope Gregory XIII and directed by the Orientalist and mathematician Giovanni Battista Raimondi (1536-1614). The ultimate purpose of the Typographia Medicea was, in the Pope's mind, the printing of sacred and religious texts in Oriental languages that were to be disseminated throughout the Mediterranean and the Near East. Cardinal Ferdinando, on the other hand, considered the Oriental Press as an investment through which he could gain the commercial monopoly over the book trade throughout the Levant. However, his investment was to prove unsuccessful. The press never managed to produce substantial revenues, and the initial expenses were not covered by the sales: thousands of copies remained lying in the closets of Ferdinando's palace in Rome and later were moved to several Medici residences in Florence and Pisa. In spite of the financial failure, the cultural and scientific enterprise led by Raimondi achieved great results. The high technical skills of the craftsmen involved in the making of several Oriental types, together with Raimondi's exceptional linguistic and philological expertise, allowed the Typographia to produce editions of unprecedented quality. Moreover, Cardinal Ferdinando and Raimondi put together a library that remains an extant legacy for future generations, today constituting the core of the collection of the Oriental manuscripts now kept in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence.” (M. Farina & S. Fani, The Typographia Medicea and the Humanistic Perrspective of Renaissance Rome. in: The Grand Ducal Medici and the Levant. Material Culture; Diplomacy, and Imagery in the Early Modern Mediterranean, edited by Maurizio Arfaioli and Marta Caroscio. 2016) Antonio Tempesta (1555 - 1630), Italian painter and engraver of the early Baroque era, was the author of the illustrations of both the editions of the Gospel in Arabic printed by the Typoraphia Medicea.

CNCE 5985; Adams B 1822; Mortimer 64; Darlow/Moule 1636; Schnurrer 318.