12mo. [4], 96 pp., [Preface], 112 pp., [3 Index], (bound back to front, from right to left without any loss), contemporary full calf, professionally rebound with new spine, corners bumped, worm holes to lower margin of pages 23-46 without loss, small library label verso front cover, a reprint of the 1654 first edition, Roycroft for Th. Garthwait, London, second edition, 1655.

Synopsis

An abridged version of Walton’s famous and important introduction to the London Polyglot Bible which was published in 1655-57 (in 6 volumes), or rather a summary of Walton’s comprehensive ‘praefatio’ about Oriental languages in general and on different Bible versions. The Oriental types for the Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Samaritan characters are prepared by Roycroft. The Ethiopic types were apparently not yet finished, and are printed in woodcut. The Coptic and Armenian types were also printed in woodcut. “This little tract is really well written, and must have been very useful at the time it was published. It does not contain grammars of the different languages mentioned in the title, but only different alphabets, and directions how to read them. At the end of the exposition of the alphabet of each language, is a Specimen, in the proper character . This little work is of considerable importance, as the harbinger of the inestimable Polyglott”. (A. Clarke: A succinct account of the Polyglott Bibles, Liverpool 1802, p. 46).
Bibliographic references: De Sacy 2487; Lowndes 1898; Wing W658; Zenker BO ii, 1508.