[LABROSSE, JOSEPH]. ANGELO (ANGELUS) Ë S. JOSEPH: - ... Gazophylacium linguae Persarum, triplici linguarum clavi italicae, latinae, gallicae, nec non specialibus praeceptis ejusdem linguae reseratum. Amsterdam, Ex Officina Janson-Waesberg, 1684.

. Folio. Pp. (xviii), 18, 473, (1), index (38). With engraved front or extra title, title printed in red and black. Some minor staining to the first leaves. Uncut copy in contemporary boards, red calf spine, binding worn. Preserved in a modern blue cloth box. The first proper Persian-Latin dictionary to be published. Only preceded by Ravius' Specimen Lexici Arabico-Persico-Latini (Lugd. Bat. 1645) and the Persian section in Castell's Lexicon Heptaglotton (London 1669). The dictionary entries are in Italian followed by translations into Latin, French and Persian respectively. Includes an introduction mainly based on De Dieu. Joseph Labrosse was a French Carmelite missionary and the first European to make a serious study of Persian medicine. He composed this work during a stay in the Levant between 1664 and 1679. He tried to have this work published in Paris without success, but a few years later he himself arranged for the printing in Amsterdam. Labrosse purchased the small Arabic types used in this work at the Elzevier sale in 1681. The large Arabic types found on the title page and eight times in the text were cut by Guillaume Le Bé in Paris 1599. These types were used only occasionally in Paris until the end of the 18th century and it seems that this is the only time they were used outside France (Smitskamp). Schwab 672. Smitskamp PO 345. Vater 279.