ՍԵԲԱՍՏԱՑԻ (Մխիթար) Վարդապետ [MEKHITAR SEBASTATSI]. Բառաքիրք - Lot 186

ՍԵԲԱՍՏԱՑԻ (Մխիթար) Վարդապետ [MEKHITAR SEBASTATSI]. Բառաքիրք Հայկազեան Լեզուի [Dictionary of the Armenian Language, Vol. 1 and 2]. Venice, Imprimerie Antonio Bortoli, 1749-1769. 2 vols. in-4 [ incomplete ], [1] f. (engraved title), 22-1251-263 p., 4 pl. (of which 3 folding) + [1] f. (engraved title), 18-371-416-700 p., 1 pl., posterior green half-basane with corners, smooth spine, red title-pieces and tomaison, yellow speckled edges (defects of which spine of t.1 detached, boards and spines rubbed, leather missing from corners, upper hinge of vol.2 split, edges, corners and headbands worn, engraved title and pp. 1-9 of vol.1 partly detached, 263 pp. of vol.2 bound at end of vol.1). Rare first edition of this Armenian dictionary, written by Mékhitar de Sébaste and his pupils. This major work compiles the vocabulary of the Armenian translation of the Bible, as well as terms used in Armenian bibliography (relating to names, animals, plants, units of measurement, money, work, etc.). Much of the lexicon is analyzed etymologically, with in-depth scientific explanations, particularly for words borrowed from Greek, Persian and Hebrew. The second volume of this work was published twenty years after the first and after the death of Mékhitar de Sébaste, Armenian Catholic monk, scholar, theologian and founder of the Mékhitarist order, established on the island of San Lazzaro near Venice since 1717. The book was printed in the workshop of Antonio Bortoli, who at the time held a monopoly on publishing Armenian and Greek books. The first volume is illustrated with an allegorical plate, repeated in the second volume. It also includes three folding plates depicting a celestial map, a world map and a compass rose. The two-column text is framed by a double fillet and adorned with wood-engraved illustrated initials. The second edition, entitled Nouveau dictionnaire de la langue arménienne, appeared in 1836.