[Egypt]. - Lot 111

[Egypt]. EUTYCHIUS [SA'ID IBN AL-BATRIQ]. SELDEN, Ioannes. Eutychii Aegyptii, Patriarchae Orthodoxorum Alexandrini, Scriptoris, ut in Oriente admodùm Vetusti ac Illustris, ita in Occidente tum paucissim Visi tum perrarò Auditi, Ecclesiae suae Origines. Ex eiusdem Arabico nunc primùm typis edidit ac Versione & Commentario auxit Ioannes Seldenus. Londini (London), excudebat Richardus Bishopus, 1642. Small in-4, (2)-XXXVIII-184 pp. Contemporary fawn basane, double framed in cold on the boards with gilded fleurons in the spandrels, spine ribbed and ornamented (binding very worn with scuffs and tears, browned pages, some with foxing, small ink stain at the bottom of the central fold). Title page in red and black. Arabic text with Latin translation and commentary by John Selden. First edition of Selden's translation of these extracts from the Annals of Eutychius (or Nazm al-zawhar of Sa'id ibn al-Baṭriq by his Arabic name), Melchite patriarch of Alexandria (877-940). Published and commented on by the English Hebraizing jurist and humanist John Selden (1584-1654), with the aim of demonstrating that the Church of Alexandria originally made no real distinction between bishops and priests. After a preface, Selden publishes the Arabic text and its Latin translation, accompanied by a lengthy commentary based on two manuscripts, on 12 pages in columns. Edition marked "Prostant apud R. & T. Whitakerum", with the names of the booksellers where the work can be found, at the bottom of the title page, and which do not appear on another edition of the same date. This is one of the most important books in the history of printing. According to Roper and Smitskamp, it is considered the first Arabic book printed in England; previously, only works containing quotations or short passages in Arabic characters had been published. It is also one of the first books printed in the UK with movable Arabic metal type, probably of Dutch origin, first used in 1635 in an edition of Mare Clausum, also published by Selden. Roper, Arabic printing and publishing in England before 1820. Smitskamp, Philologia orientalis, 370.