Les Voyages de Sind-Bâd le Marin et les Ruses des Femmes, Contes Arabes, Traduction Littérale, Accompagnée du Texte et de Notes
Langles, L[ouis]. (Trans.)
Paris. De l'Imprimerie Royale. 1814
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First edition of 'Sind-Bâd' and the first printing of any part of the Arabian Nights in Arabic.
Although traditionally included in the corpus of the 1,001 Nights (Alf Layla wa Layla) as told by Scheherazade, it is thought that the series of voyages that make up the voyages of Sinbad have older and separate origins, incorporating elements of Homer, Panchatantra, other Persian, Arab and Indian literary material as well as historical material relating to trade and navigation. Set traditionally during the reign of Haroun al-Rashid, Sinbad undertakes seven voyages from Basra, each leading one to the other, encounters fabulous creatures, faces exhaustive ordeals and amasses fabulous wealth.
The publisher of the present edition, Louis-Mathieu Langlès, an important figure in the study of Middle-Eastern and Oriental languages and literature, was a correspondent of William Jones in Calcutta, co-founder of the Ecole des Langues Orientales Vivantes in Paris and the keeper of the Indian manuscript department in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
' ... un ouvrage classique, et d'une certaine importance sous le point de vue scientifique, historique ou littéraire.' (Langlès writing in the Préface).
[PROVENANCE: Engraved pictorial bookplate of Paul Fölsche to front free endpaper].
[Brunet III, 820].
Although traditionally included in the corpus of the 1,001 Nights (Alf Layla wa Layla) as told by Scheherazade, it is thought that the series of voyages that make up the voyages of Sinbad have older and separate origins, incorporating elements of Homer, Panchatantra, other Persian, Arab and Indian literary material as well as historical material relating to trade and navigation. Set traditionally during the reign of Haroun al-Rashid, Sinbad undertakes seven voyages from Basra, each leading one to the other, encounters fabulous creatures, faces exhaustive ordeals and amasses fabulous wealth.
The publisher of the present edition, Louis-Mathieu Langlès, an important figure in the study of Middle-Eastern and Oriental languages and literature, was a correspondent of William Jones in Calcutta, co-founder of the Ecole des Langues Orientales Vivantes in Paris and the keeper of the Indian manuscript department in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
' ... un ouvrage classique, et d'une certaine importance sous le point de vue scientifique, historique ou littéraire.' (Langlès writing in the Préface).
[PROVENANCE: Engraved pictorial bookplate of Paul Fölsche to front free endpaper].
[Brunet III, 820].
pp. xxx, 161 (French pagination); 113 (Arabic pagination). 12mo. French half-title (advertisements verso), French title, Langlès' 'Préface', text of 'Voyages de Sind-Bâd', text of 'Ruse des Femmes', 'Notes de la Préface', 'Notes de la Traduction', Langlès' 'Préface' and the two sets of 'Notes' with quotations in Arabic and Hebrew; Arabic half-title, title with woodcut head-piece verso and Arabic text of 'Qissat al-Sindbaad al-Bahri'. Full contemporary English calf, boards with decorative gilt surround, banded spine with black morocco title label and gilt tool in six compartments, board edges and turn-ins with additional gilt decoration, marbled edges and endpapers.
#40515
