Fabrica overo Dittionario della lingua volgare Arabica,
et Italiana... Rome Stampa della Sac. Congreg. de Propag. Fede. 1636
First edition, Small 4to, pp. [x], 102; Arabic characters in text. A very good copy bound in recent half calf, marbled boards. Dampstain to top inner corner throughout.
Balagna, p.138; Fück, pp.77–8; Marsden, p.23; Schnurrer 67; Smitskamp PO 224; COPAC: BL, Oxford, Cambridge
An introduction to the Arabic language, and one of the earliest publications of the Propaganda Fide press to use Arabic type. Fra Dominico Germano de Silesia, 1585–1670, succeeded Tommaso Obicini in the Propaganda Fide's Arabic Bible project. His dictionary proper appeared three years after this preparatory work. His unpublished translation of the Koran, among the earliest in any language, is considered to be more exact than André Du Ryer's French version printed in 1647. The Congregatio de Propaganda Fide was established in Rome by Pope Gregory XV in 1622. Its press was set up four years later to print sacred and other texts in non-Roman alphabets. 'It eclisped all other printing activities in Oriental languages in Italy, with its 15 Oriental fonts' (AbiFarès, p.55). The Propaganda Fide printed an Alphabetum Arabicum in 1633 and after many years of scholarly work, published its Arabic Bible in 1671. The press remained active until 1907 and at its height possessed alphabets that enabled it to print in all the known languages of the world.