Tracts on language--Piscator, Johannes (1546-1625).

Lakemacher, Johann Gottfried (1695-1736). Elementa linguae Arabicae in quibus omnia ad solidam huius linguaecognitionem necessaria paradigmata exhibentur. Helmstadt: Hermann Daniel Hamm, 1718, title-page printed in red and black, illustration: woodcut head- and tailpieces, [Schnurrer 89], spotting



Bible. NT. Galatians. Epistola Pauli ad Galatas, item sex primaria capita Christianae religionis Arabice. Quibus ad finem adiunctum est compendium grammatices Arabicae authore Rutghero Spey. Heidelberg: Jakob Muller, 1583, ff. [42], illustration: woodcut printer's device on verso of final leaf, woodcut initials, [VD16 B5094; Schnurrer 317], cropped (affecting a few letters)



3 works in one volume (Rudimenta linguae Hebraicae bound last), 4to (201 x 146mm.), binding: eighteenth-century half calf, spine gilt in compartments, binding rubbed, lacking lettering-piece

1st work: Robert Howie (d. 1641x7), Scottish theologian, inscription on title-page "liber Roberti Hovaei ex dono authoris"

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Piscator was a theologian at Herborn University, of which he was Principal from 1584 until his death. His reputation was such, both as a teacher and as a writer, that he attracted students from all parts of Europe. Hebrew was not his forte initially, and his Rudimenta may well have been written to support his own teaching.

The second work, edited by Rutger Spey, does not make use of type but of woodcut letters. It is the earliest New Testament text printed in Arabic; the Psalms were printed in Genoa in 1516 (see Macclesfield Bibles, lot 2296), but this work is intended as a linguistic exercise rather than a religious text. Lakemacher's Elementa also prints two Biblical texts and Sura 15 of the Qur'an.