Extremely rare set of typographical specimens from the printing office of the Congregation de propaganda fide, COLLECTION of 12 exotic alphabets.

      Congregation de Propaganda Fide, ca. 1636-40., Rome, Vatican, - Oblong 8vo (110x170mm). Contemporary plain vellum. All pages within double woodcut border lines. 12 lvs. (Collation: A-C4). Extremely rare original and complete set, published without a title-page, of a collection of 12 very interesting type specimens, printed at the Printing Office of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide at the Vatican. The collection drew on earlier Roman publications of a similar vein: it reprised for example material from Angelo Rocca's Variarum linguarum alphabeta et inventores (Rome 1595), Giacomo Bonaventure Scozese's Virga aurea (Rome 1616), and Athenasius Kircher' Prodromus Copticus sive Aegyptiacus (1636). The famous Jesuit Athenasius Kircher devoted half of his eighth chapter of his Prodromus - ostensibly concerned with the usefulness of Coptic - to an enigmatic inscription that had been discovered by Thomaso Obicini at the foot of Mt. Horeb in the Sinai. Although it did not pertain to Coptic or anything Egyptian, Kircher announced that he would be remiss not to discuss it. Kircher described how he brought to bear his philological expertise by trying to match the inscription's characters with three oriental languages, Hebrew, Samaritan, and Syriac. According to Kircher the inscription was written in a form of ancient Chaldean. It concerns our nr. 8.In the collection are three alphabets of Adam, the first from the Vatican Library, the second by Giacomo Bonaventura Scozese, the third by Lorenzo Schrader; 4 Hebrew alphabets, the first 'detto soprasilvio', the second 'detto testo', the third designed by Garamond and the fourth Rabbinic by Garamond, the above mentioned script discovered by Tomaso da Novara at the foot of Mont Horeb, an analysis of the same by Athanasius Kircher, Samaritan and Estrangelo alphabets, and a Chaldean alphabet. Established in 1626 for the propaganda of the Catholic faith among the Eastern peoples, the 'Propaganda fide', has published many texts in exotic, oriental alphabets. This publication shows the different types the printing office could use:(1) Alfabeto del protoparente Adamo I. delineato nella libraria Vaticana.(2) Alfabeto II. di Adamo secondo che riferisce il P. Giacomo Bonavent. Scozese dell'Ordine di S. Francesco di Paolo nel suo alfabetario intitolato Virga Aurea.(3) Alfabeto III. di Adamo cavato dal libro di Lorenzo Schradero stampato in Helmstatt l'anno 1592.(4) Alfabeto Hebreo detto soprasilvio.(5) Alfabeto Hebreo detto testo.(6) Alfabeto Hebreo detto Garamone.(7) Alfabeto Hebreo Rabbinico detto Garamone.(8) Lettere cavata dal P. Tomaso da Navara che si trovano sculpite in una pietra piccola posta à piedi del monte Oreb, dove Dio N.S. diede la legge.(9) Analysi dell'antecedente carattere, conforme alla dispositione del P. Atanasio Kircher nel prodromo Copto, approvata da'molti.(10) Alfabeto Samaritano, detto testo.(11) Alfabeto estranghelo, overo Chaldeo antico, detto testo.(12) Alfabeto Chaldeo, overo Siro detto, di due righe di Silvio. Good copy of this very rare publication- (Several lvs. shaved at the bottom, not effecting the text). G. Amaduzzi, Catalogus librorum qui ex typographio Sacrae Congreg de Propaganda Fide variis lainguis prodierunt (Rome 1773), p. 7; Birrell & Garnett, Cat. of I Typefounders' specimens .(1928, repr. 1972), p. 4, nr. 4; R. Smitskamp, Philologia orientalis: a description of books illustratingthe study and printing of oriental languages (3 vols., Leiden 1976-91), pp. 74-7 (Smithkamp calls the work by the first title of the first of its alphabets: Alphabetum Adamiticum, and suggests ca. 1636 for the publication date) ; D. Stolzenberg, Egyptian Oedipus. Antiquarianism, oriental studies . in the work of Athanasius Kircher (Thesis Stanford Univ., 2004), pp. 118 and 121; the copy at the Harvard's Houghton Library, which is catalogued as a 'Collection of Twelve Exotic Alphabets', with the date ca. 1650. [Attributes: Signed Copy]