Lot 382
Kircher (Athanasius) Prodromus Coptus sive Aegyptiacus, first edition, first issue, Rome, 1636.
Hammer Price: £1,000
Description
Kircher (Athanasius) Prodromus Coptus sive Aegyptiacus, first edition, first issue, with the dedicatee's (Francesco Barberini) coat-of-arms on title, woodcut illustrations in the text, slightly browned, contemporary limp vellum, ink title on spine, [Merrill, 3; Caillet II, 5790; Brunet III, 668; Graesse IV, p.22; Sommervogel IV, 1047.3], 4to, Rome, Congregatio de propaganda fide, 1636.
⁂ A very good copy of the first Coptic grammar ever published. In 1629 the French scientist and book collector Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc received a group of Coptic manuscripts from his collaborator Teofilo Minuti on his return from travels in the Middle East. Coptic was still an unknown language at the time and Peiresc asked Kircher to help him decipher the texts. A few years later Kircher published the Prodromus, which according to many scholars represents the manifesto of Egyptology.
Description
Kircher (Athanasius) Prodromus Coptus sive Aegyptiacus, first edition, first issue, with the dedicatee's (Francesco Barberini) coat-of-arms on title, woodcut illustrations in the text, slightly browned, contemporary limp vellum, ink title on spine, [Merrill, 3; Caillet II, 5790; Brunet III, 668; Graesse IV, p.22; Sommervogel IV, 1047.3], 4to, Rome, Congregatio de propaganda fide, 1636.
⁂ A very good copy of the first Coptic grammar ever published. In 1629 the French scientist and book collector Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc received a group of Coptic manuscripts from his collaborator Teofilo Minuti on his return from travels in the Middle East. Coptic was still an unknown language at the time and Peiresc asked Kircher to help him decipher the texts. A few years later Kircher published the Prodromus, which according to many scholars represents the manifesto of Egyptology.