Lot 73: Pococke, Edward

Pococke, Edward
Specimen historiae arabum … accessit Historia veterum arabum ex Abu'l Feda: cura Antonii I. Sylvestri de Sacy; edidit Josephus White. Oxford: e Typographeo Clarendoniano, 1806. Second edition, 4to., engraved portrait frontispiece, engraved vignette on the titlepage, text in Arabic and Latin, with the corrigenda slip at the end, original quarter cloth, paper boards, printed paper label, edges uncut, edges with a little wear, upper inner joint splitting, offsetting from the portrait to the title, some light paper discolouration

Note: Barker 35


Edward Pococke or Pocoke (1604-91) acquired his knowledge of oriental languages at Aleppo where he was chaplain to the Turkey Merchants from 1630-1636, He was appointed to the new chair of Arabic by Archbishop Laud in 1636 who also sent him again to the East in search of manuscript material. The Specimen, of which this is the second edition and which was originally published in 1650, is a series of essays attached to a thirteenth-century description of the Arabs. The extensive use of Arabic and some Hebrew types probably drew on the type purchased at Leyden for the University Press in 1637. See Baker The Oxford University Press and the spread of learning, p.11-13.