4to. xv, 108 pp., of Latin text, 211 pp., of Arabic text, 2 b/w plates, publisher’s original wrappers, lightly foxed round edges, title printed in Arabic & Latin on front cover, unopened, copy in very good condition, Typographia Polyglotta, Rome, 1888.

Synopsis

Agostino Ciasca (1835-1902) was an Italian Augustinian and Cardinal. He was a distinguished Orientalist, and archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives. He studied Oriental languages, especially Arabic and Coptic. In 1866 he obtained the chair of Hebrew in the College of Propaganda, and later took part in the First Vatican Council in the quality of theologian and as interpreter for the Oriental bishops. He also occupied the following positions: consulter of the Congregation of Propaganda for the affairs of Oriental Rites (1872); writer in the Vatican Library for Arabic (1876); pontifical interpreter at the Congregation of Propaganda; ordinary censor of Oriental books and professor of Oriental languages in the Roman Seminary (1878); dean of the faculties of Oriental languages and theology in the same seminary, and president of the college of interpreters at the Propaganda (1882); consultor of the Holy Office (1889).
He published (1885–89) the extant fragments of a very ancient Coptic version of the Old Testament, from manuscripts in the Borgia (Propaganda) Museum. He discovered and edited (1888) an Arabic version of the Diatessaron of Tatian, a text of importance for the history of the Canon of the New Testament (cf. M. Maher, “Recent Evidence for the authenticity of the Gospel: Tatian’s Diatessaron”, London, 1903).