LUDOLF (LUDOLPH), IOB: - Historia ®thiopica, sive brevis & succincta descriptio regni habessinorum, ... 1. De natura & indole regionis & incolarum. II. De regimine politico, regum successione &c. III. De statu ecclesiastico, initio & progressureligionis Christianae & c. IV. De rebus privatis, literatura,aeconomia, &c. Two volumes in one. Francfurt a. Main, Joh. David Zunner, 1681 & 1691.

. Folio. Lvs (168); pp. (vi), 30, 632. With titles printed in red and black, three engraved portraits, one engraved folding map, 17 engraved plates (of which many folding, one neatly restored on verso) and two folding tables. Contemporary vellum, title in manuscript on spine, red edges. Old inscriptions on front paste-down. First edition. A handsome copy of this monumental work on Ethiopia dealing with its history, inhabitants, natural history, language and literature. Job Ludolph (1624-1704), a German-born orientalist and linguist, was the founder of Ethiopian studies in Europe and compiled the first dictionaries and grammars of the Amharic language. His historical work is mainly based on Jesuit sources but also on first hand information supplied by an Ethiopian monk, Abba Gregory, whom he met in Rome. The beautiful plates depict different exotic animals, and a few of people. The large map by Christian Ludolph (issued in 1683) is the first published to show the true source of the Blue Nile, at lake Tana. It was a landmark in the cartography of the region and for a long time the mapmakers continued to show the source as the two Ptolematic lakes Zaire and Zaflan near the equator. Two appendixes were published in 1691 and 1694 respectively (not present here). Brunet iii, 1224. Eberet 12480. Gay 2658. Provenance: From the Celsing library at Biby in Sweden. In the middle of the 17th century Ludolph spent a year in Sweden when he met with learned men at Queen Christina's court. Throughout his life he stayed in contact with Swedish scholars and nobility, and after his death his family corresponded with members of the Celsing family.

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