Leçons De Langue Samaritane, Données Au Collège Royal De France

Bound with: Marcel, J.-J.
            Leçons De Langue Chaldaique.  Paris, J.-M. Eberhart 1819. 8vo. [iv], 4, 8p. Two Chaldaic types - root letters printed in solid ("closed") types and inflectional letters in outline ("open"), Marcel's monogram on the main title.

Bound with: Marcel, J.-J.
            Leçons D'Hébreu Rabbinique.  Paris, J.-M. Eberhart 1819. 8vo. [iv], 8, 4, 4, 4, 4p. Four Hebrew alphabets, Marcel's monogram on the main title.
            Ad I-III: Only Editions of these introductory grammars to Samaritan (I; nine lessons), Chaldaic (II; two lessons), and Rabbinical Hebrew (III; five lessons) by the distinguished philologist, punch cutter, printer, and professor at the Collège Royal, where he taught from 1817 to 1820. The Lord's Prayer was the primary translation exercise; the first and second books also contain the first chapter of Genesis. The half-title versos state the lessons were sold separately or, as here, in collections. This volume contains twelve two-leaf lessons (each four pages), three four-leaf lessons (each eight pages) and one eight-leaf lesson (sixteen pages): the final verso of every lesson bears Eberhart's imprint.
            The Samaritan course shows six alphabets - that of the "best manuscripts", of the Polyglots, of Dutch scholar Johann Leusden (1624-99), epistolary, numismatic, and Phoenician. The Chaldaic lessons show two fonts, and the Hebrew includes the Rabbinic alphabet and those peculiar to the Jews of Central Europe, of Spain and of North Africa. Marcel likely designed and cut the present unusually large types for his own use. He had directed the French National Press at Cairo and the Imperial Press in Paris.
            All three booklets are complete and in good condition with many margins uncut (some spots); canceled shelfmark on the first title, perforated stamp of the Québec Franciscans on the first title and final leaf.
¶Crown, A Bibliography of the Samaritans 2129 (I); see Jammes' Collection de spécimens de caractères 73 (Marcel's Syriac lessons).