Author: TIFASHI, Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmed ibn Yusuf al-. [Azhar al-afkar fi jawahir al-ahjar].
Title: Fior di pensieri sulle pietre preziose di Ahmed Teifascite. Opera stampata nel suo originale arabo, colla traduzione Italiana appresso, e diverse note di Antonio Raineri.Florence, Tipografia Orientale Mediceo-Laurenziana, 1818. Folio (205 x 281 mm). Contemporary gold tooled light brown polished calf, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, the papal supralibros in the central panel on both boards, gilt edges, marbled endpapers.
Description: [62], 1-10; [2 blank], 11-118 pp.First edition of the most important Arabic lapidary, in an unusually handsome neoclassical binding by the Vatican bindery.Al-Tifashi (1184-1253), a native of Tifâche in Tunisi, was a geology scholar and merchant, poet and anthologist. This, his principal work, forms the most famous and complete treatise of the Middle Ages on minerals and gems. It treats "twenty-five stones in as many chapters" (DSB): "pearls, jacinth, emerald, topaz, balas ruby, benfesc (bezoar?), garnet, diamond ..., turquoise, carnelian, onyx, magnet (lodestone)... lapis lazuli, coral ... Other names for the same stones are also given, as well as their origin, sources, qualities, defects, magical & medicinal properties, values, and prices" (Sinkankas). "No critical edition of the book has been produced, but a text with Italian translation was printed in 1818" (DSB). The author researched his subject of journeys to Armenia, Persia, Turkmenistan, India, Andalusia and Mesopotamia. Drawing on local knowledge, he compiled a description for each stone which provides their physical-chemical characteristics, the best methods for preservation, and even some Persian etymologies.On his travels as a gem dealer, Al-Tifashi had visited the Gulf some time in the 1240s. "He gives around 13 different names for types of pearls [...] We learn that pearls were typically sold in bunches of 10 strings of 36 pearls [...] He gives a list of prices for such bunches for values starting at 1/6 mithqal per string, costing 3/4 dinar for a bunch of 10 such strings (i.e. 360 pearls, costing around £67 at today's gold prices, or ca. 19 pence per pearl). At the higher end of the scale he gives prices for strings weighing 4 mithqals, costing 200 dinars for a bunch of 10 such strings [...] He gives values for [single strings of 36 pearls] weighing up to 7 mithqals [...] A single large pearl with the right qualities (spherical, pure colour, good water 'which is the sheen', and 'of translucent core, which is the orient') weighing 1 mithqal would cost 300 dinars, but if it had an identical pair then together they would cost 700 dinars. The largest pearl priced by Al-Tifashi weighed just over 2 dirhams [...] This would be 700 dinars alone, but if it had a pair they would cost 2000 dinars each, thus 4000 dinars for a pair of the largest perfect pearls considered by Al-Tifashi" (Carter, 49).Edited and translated by the scholar Antonio Ranieri Biscia (1780-1836), who had himself travelled the Middle East and visited the Arabian Peninsula. This remains his most celebrated effort, based on the manuscript Or.368 in the Biblioteca Laurenziana of Florence. To print the Arabic text, the press utilized the types that had originally been designed by Giovanni Battista Raimondi for the Typographia Medicea, commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII in 1591.Provenance: Bound for Pope Leo XII (Annibale della Genga, 1760-1829) in a splendid binding from the Vatican Bindery: both covers have a series of frames composed of seven different fillets or by roll-tooled gilt borders framing the central panel. Inside this field is a first border of entwined floral elements, at the corners four large fans with lanceolate tools, in the central panel the Pope's coat of arms is stamped in gold, surmounted by the Triregnum and surrounded by rich floral decorations and small stars. The spine features the title in one compartment, while the other five are closely gilt with small tools of four different types.An excellent and fresh copy with wide margins.l Balzani, R., L'arte contesa nell’età di Napoleone, Pio VII e Canova (Milan, 2009), p. 246, form no. 6.30. Brunet V, 690; DSB XIII, 407; GAL S I, 904; Fischer, H., Nephrit und Jadeit nach ihren mineralogischen Eigenschaften (Stuttgart, 1880), p. 182f.; Sinkankas 6557; cf. Carter, Sea of Pearls (2012), pp. 49ff.

Keywords: |[04F65CFF5112] ART, ARCHITECTURE & PHOTOGRAPHY|[04F65CFF5112] ART, ARCHITECTURE & PHOTOGRAPHY -> [34ED9446A42A] Art & Art History|[04F65CFF5112] ART, ARCHITECTURE & PHOTOGRAPHY -> [4A4D6CCCB3F7] Gems & Precious Stones|[94684889A2BD] BOOK HISTORY, EDUCATI