Lexicon Heptaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Aethiopicum, Arabicum, Conjunctim; et Persicum…
London: Thomas Roycroft, 1669. First Edition. Two large folio volumes, together measuring approximately 18 x 12 x 5.5 inches, bound in full leather with raised bands and gilt lettering to the spines. Boards decorated in gilt. Edmund Castell’s Lexicon Heptaglotton is a monumental work of seventeenth-century biblical philology and comparative Oriental scholarship, printed in London by Thomas Roycroft in 1669. Conceived as a companion to Brian Walton’s great London Polyglot Bible, Castell’s lexicon brought together the principal learned languages used in biblical and Near Eastern textual study: Hebrew, Chaldee/Aramaic, Syriac, Samaritan, Ethiopic, and Arabic, with Persian treated separately. The work was intended to help scholars compare related words across languages, clarify difficult scriptural terms, and study the Bible through the original and cognate tongues rather than through Latin translation alone. Castell labored for many years on the project, reportedly at enormous personal expense, and the resulting folio volumes stand among the most ambitious lexicographical undertakings of the English seventeenth century. With its connection to the London Polyglot, its vast multilingual scope, and its importance to the development of Semitic studies, Orientalism, Hebraica, Arabic and Persian scholarship, and biblical interpretation, the Lexicon Heptaglotton remains a landmark of early modern learned printing. The hinges have been repaired, ex-library with some of the typical markings, damage to corners, previous owner's inscriptions, some rubbing and wear, scuffs, tears to the frontispiece, slight discoloration, else in good + condition. Item #362
Price: $2,500.00