De catholicis seu patriarchis Chaldaeorum et Nestorianorum commentarius historico-chronologicus auctore Josepho Aloysio Assemano [...] in Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide Linguarum Orientalium professore

4to (254x180 mm). XII, LXXXIV, 270, [2 blank] pp. Collation: *⁶ A-I⁴ K⁶²A-²Z⁴ Aa-Ll⁴. Title page printed in red and black with the woodcut coat-of-arms of the dedicatee Pope Pius VI in the center. Ornated head- and tailpieces, historiated initials. 20^th-century half vellum, morocco lettering piece on spine. Repair to the lower outer corner of the title page and of ll. *4 and ²K4 with no loss of text, slightly browned throughout, some foxing, a good copy with wide margins.

RARE FIRST AND ONLY EDITION (in 2004 republished as anastatic reprint by Gorgias Press) of this work which contains three lists of Nestorian patriarchs, taken from two Syriac and one Arabic manuscripts of the Vatican Library, accompanied by the erudite notes and commentary of the Orientalist scholar Giuseppe Luigi Assemani , partly based on the studies of his uncle Giuseppe Simonio Assemani.

Giuseppe Luigi Assemani was born in Syria around 1710 into an Italianized Maronite family. He followed in the academic footsteps of his uncle Giuseppe Simonio and dedicated his entire life to the study of Oriental languages. In 1737 he was appointed professor of Syriac at the University La Sapienza in Roma, in 1749 professor of Oriental liturgy in the same university and later on professor of Oriental languages at the Collegium de Propaganda Fide. He died in Rome in 1782.

Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\UM1E\006770.

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