Small 8vo. [3], 447 pp., [43], [2f], + 70 pp., Index Alphabeticus, title woodcut device, handsomely printed in Roman, Syriac and Arabic fonts throughout, contemporary vellum, soiled, some browning and spotting throughout, Typis Sac. Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, Rome, 1636.

Synopsis

An Arabic-Syriac-Latin word list arranged by subject, based on the Arabic-Syriac vocabulary compiled in the 11th century by Elias bar Shināya, Metropolitan of Nisibis (see Haywood, p.122). Obicini (or Obizzino), 1585–1632, was the head of the Franciscan convent in Aleppo between 1613 and 1619. On his return to Rome he successfully proposed that a college should be established in the convent of St Peter in Montorio for missionaries preparing to evangelise in the East to learn Arabic. The Propaganda Fide appointed him teacher of Arabic. Obicini was also responsible for the supervision of the Propaganda Fide’s type. Dominico Germano de Silesia prepared his “Thesaurus Arabico-Syro-Latinus” for publication after his death. It was a rather careless piece of printing, with some words printed upside down and the errata list occupying 17 pages. ‘The Syriac types are the 20pt Maronite types, and in the headings the Arabic Bible types are used’ (Smitskamp).
The Propaganda Fide printing press printed alphabets of most of the languages spoken by those whom the Catholic Church saw as potential converts. Alphabets soon led to missals, grammars and dictionaries. This is an early book by the Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide (OCLC lists only 6 earlier ones). OCLC lists 5 copies but only 3 in the U.S. (Harvard, N.Y.P.L., and St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook, Pennsylvania). Ebert 14920.
Bibliographic references: Marsden, p.48; Schnurrer, pp.38–9; Smitskamp PO 223; Fück 77; NUC 425, p 564; Not in Blackmer.