Rudimenta Linguae Arabicae

1628

Shoults Lb 1628 E

[Leiden: Bonaventure & Abraham Elsevir]

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Leiden was a thriving centre of Arabic studies. Scholars resident there included Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609); Franciscus Raphelengius (1539-1597); Jacob Golius (1596-1667); and Thomas van Erpe (known as Erpenius; 1584 -1624), the first European to publish an accurate book of Arabic grammar, Grammatica Arabica (1613). It contained the first Arabic typeface, designed by Raphelengius. Printers Bonaventure and Abraham Elzevir acquired the oriental (Syrian, Arab, Aramaic and Hebrew) fonts that once belonged to Erpenius. They printed this later edition of Erpenius’ Rudimenta Linguae Arabicae, which first appeared in 1620. This edition contains both Latin and Arabic, and where incomplete, a diligent person has written out the entire text by hand. There are numerous marginal notes throughout.