Search Results: Authors starting with T from John Randall (Books of Asia)

[Halle], [c.1846]. Persian and Latin manuscript in ink on wove paper, 8vo (22.5 x 18 cm), ff.24, with 21 lines of text per page in single ruled frames, headings in red, Latin text in cursive, Persian in fastidious nasta'liq, f.1r with a calligraphic title in Persian, transliterated Persian, and Latin, written in red and black, in a double-ruled frame. Bound in later calf-backed red cloth, spine worn but joints firm. Paper slightly browned, with a small marginal tear on f.1, text unaffected and contents otherwise in excellent condition. Occasional later pencil annotations. An unpublished Latin translation of the grammatical muqaddima or introduction to the 17th-century Persian dictionary Farhang-i Rashidi, completed in 1654 and dedicated to Shah Jahan. This was amongst the earliest critical attempts to describe Persian grammar. Ludwig Splieth, a German orientalist, prepared a critical text of this grammatical introduction's Persian original, which was lithographed at Halle in 1846, the first… Read More

Halle : Lippert & Schmidt, 1846. First edition, pp.51, lithographed Persian text. An very good copy in modern half calf, cloth boards, interleaved and heavily annotated in both Latin and Persian in a contemporary hand, probably Spleith's. Title page foxed, and occasional spotting elsewhere. This first publication of the introduction to the seventeenth-century Persian dictionary Farhang-i Rashidi, completed in 1654 by the learned poet Abd al-Rashid (b.Abd al-Ghafur al-Husayni al-Madani al-Tattawi, d. 1658) and dedicated to Shah Jahan, was the first appearance in print of any part of the Farhang-i Rashidi. The introduction by al-Rashid was one of the earliest serious attempts to describe the grammar of Persian, and the subsequent dictionary, though not present here, is considered one of the most authoritative, reliable, and complete Persian dictionaries. Ludwig Splieth, a German orientalist, also translated the introduction into Latin but it was never published. COPAC shows 4 copies only in… Read More

London: published and printed by the author at 12 Warwick Square and sold by James Gilbert, bookseller., 1851. First edition. 8vo (24.5 x 16 cm), pp.63, [1, blank], [2, imprint], with 42 wood engravings in text, title with printed frame in red. Folio broadsheet (40 x 44 cm), folded and tipped-in at rear. A very good copy in original cloth by Josiah Westley. Slight wear to head and tail of spine. Broadsheet lightly age-toned, and torn on folds. A selection of excerpts from the 11th-century Bogu tulu, a Chinese catalogue of imperial bronzes in sixteen volumes, translated by the printer Peter Perring Thoms (1790-1855). Thoms believed that the majority of the vases were made of gold, and the mirrors of polished steel; his dissertation makes no mention of bronze at all. The wood engraved illustrations were done from blocks carved by A-Lae, a Chinese artist from Canton, and were shown at the 1851 Exhibition. This copy has a remarkable broadsheet, The Original Address presented to His Excellency Hwang, on… Read More

London, 1816. First edition 4to, pp.xiii, 370, 5 hand coloured plates, folding map. A very good copy bound in contemporary half calf, marbled boards. Spine rubbed, one corner bumped. '[This] work is particularly valuable for its details of family life in the seraglio. The female members of Tully's family were on intimate terms with the Bashaw's family and were admitted into all the life of the seraglio. One of the most important records of Tripolitan life during the 18th century' (Blackmer 1682). Abbey Travel 299; see Blackmer 1682