4to. [2], vii, 254 pp., [1 errata], engraved frontispiece constituting an additional title in Arabic, 116 folding letterpress tables, 10 plates, of which 3 are in colour and 4 folding, modern cloth backed marbled boards, gilt stamped spine title, new endpapers, occasional insignificant brown staining, a wide margin untrimmed paper, Imprimeur de l’Institut National, Paris, first edition, 1803.

Synopsis

The only edition of Herbin’s Arabic grammar, which provides information about syntax and elocution, and which includes the fables of Luqman, and excerpts from Abu al-Fida’s works in Arabic with Latin translations. Also included is Herbin’s “Essay on Oriental Calligraphy,” a fine early account of Islamic calligraphy. Auguste Herbin was a distinguished French Orientalist. He was one of the first students at the School of Oriental Languages in Paris. Herbin intended to publish French-Arabic and Arabic-French dictionaries, but never completed the project before his untimely death. This is his best and well-known work, which he wrote at the age of sixteen. He left another work as a manuscript at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, which is entitled Dictionnaire Arabe-Français; Essay sur les Synomimes et les Homonymes Arabes. Contents of this work are as follows:
I- Developments of the Modern Arabic Language.
II- Developments of the Arabic Phrases.
III- Translations of Luqman El-Hakym Proverbs.
IV- Translation of Fragments from Abi ‘l-Feda “Min Zikr Dyar Masr” and Kitab Taqouim El-Bouldan.
V- Translations of Arabic Proverbs.
VI- Essay on Oriental calligraphy.
Bibliographic references: Brunet III, 110; Graesse III, 247: Schnurrer, 147; OCLC 7033701.