Le Coran, Traduit de l'Arabe, Accompagné de Notes...par M. Savary.
SAVARY, Claude-Etienne.
Le Coran, Traduit de l'Arabe, Accompagné de Notes...par M. Savary.
A La Mecque, L'an de l'Hégire 1165 (i.e. 1751-2) [but Paris, 1787]
2 vols. 8vo. (193 x 116 mm.). Small closed paperflaw to 2P4, affecting a few words of text, a little light browning and occasional spotting, stronger at the beginning and end of both volumes, but generally very good internally in contemporary spotted calf, title labels in red and green and spine decorations in gilt. Upper joint of volume two cracked at head but holding, joints rubbed as well as head of spines, small lacks to head of volume 2, all edges yellow. A very good set. Early 19th-century ex-libris of Dr Antoine Danyau to upper pastedown of volume 1.
A RARE EDITION OF SAVARY'S TRANSLATION OF THE QUR'AN INTO FRENCH with a fictitous Mecca imprint, published only four years after the first. Savary was very critical of Du Ryer's translation, the first into French directly from the Arabic (or indeed any European vernacular). He calls it flat and boring, and accuses him of having tried to make a cohesive narrative of the separate Surahs and massacring the poetry of the original in the process.
Ludovico Maracci's translation (in Padua in 1698), he rates far more highly, as being scholarly and knowledgeable, but criticizes for being too literal - he calls it "word for word".
This is Savary's attempt at providing an improvement on these two deeply influential translations of the Qur'an, which was "a significant improvement over du Ryer's work in terms of textual interpretation." The translation, as well as his famous Lettres sur l'Egypte, was very successful. Savary had spent two years in Egypt, from 1777-1779, and claims the translation was made there; however, some contemporary sources challenged his knowledge of Arabic, and there were claims that the translation was made not in Egypt, but on his return to France, and that it was made not directly from the Arabic at all, but based on Maracci's Latin. The claim, essentially, was that Savary was not a scholar in his own right, but a talented plagiarist who was able to succeed thanks to the elegance of his style.
It is unclear why the imprint and date are given as "Mecca" and the Islamic year corresponding to 1751-1752. Printing was only introduced in the Ottoman Empire in 1729, and limited to the Müteferrika Press in Istanbul. The fictitious imprint may be a 'publicity stunt' to make the work seem Romantically exotic, or it may be on account of the censors or Church.
Nonetheless, this is a rare and interesting edition of an important contribution to the dissemination of the text of the Qur'an in Enlightenment Europe, done just before the French campaigns in Egypt and growing interest in the Oriental world.
Antoine Danyau (1803-1871) was clinical head of the Charité hospital in Paris and a noted bibliophile.
RARE. Only 6 copies worldwide in OCLC. Not in Schnurrer.
SAVARY, Claude-Etienne.
Le Coran, Traduit de l'Arabe, Accompagné de Notes...par M. Savary.
A La Mecque, L'an de l'Hégire 1165 (i.e. 1751-2) [but Paris, 1787]
2 vols. 8vo. (193 x 116 mm.). Small closed paperflaw to 2P4, affecting a few words of text, a little light browning and occasional spotting, stronger at the beginning and end of both volumes, but generally very good internally in contemporary spotted calf, title labels in red and green and spine decorations in gilt. Upper joint of volume two cracked at head but holding, joints rubbed as well as head of spines, small lacks to head of volume 2, all edges yellow. A very good set. Early 19th-century ex-libris of Dr Antoine Danyau to upper pastedown of volume 1.
A RARE EDITION OF SAVARY'S TRANSLATION OF THE QUR'AN INTO FRENCH with a fictitous Mecca imprint, published only four years after the first. Savary was very critical of Du Ryer's translation, the first into French directly from the Arabic (or indeed any European vernacular). He calls it flat and boring, and accuses him of having tried to make a cohesive narrative of the separate Surahs and massacring the poetry of the original in the process.
Ludovico Maracci's translation (in Padua in 1698), he rates far more highly, as being scholarly and knowledgeable, but criticizes for being too literal - he calls it "word for word".
This is Savary's attempt at providing an improvement on these two deeply influential translations of the Qur'an, which was "a significant improvement over du Ryer's work in terms of textual interpretation." The translation, as well as his famous Lettres sur l'Egypte, was very successful. Savary had spent two years in Egypt, from 1777-1779, and claims the translation was made there; however, some contemporary sources challenged his knowledge of Arabic, and there were claims that the translation was made not in Egypt, but on his return to France, and that it was made not directly from the Arabic at all, but based on Maracci's Latin. The claim, essentially, was that Savary was not a scholar in his own right, but a talented plagiarist who was able to succeed thanks to the elegance of his style.
It is unclear why the imprint and date are given as "Mecca" and the Islamic year corresponding to 1751-1752. Printing was only introduced in the Ottoman Empire in 1729, and limited to the Müteferrika Press in Istanbul. The fictitious imprint may be a 'publicity stunt' to make the work seem Romantically exotic, or it may be on account of the censors or Church.
Nonetheless, this is a rare and interesting edition of an important contribution to the dissemination of the text of the Qur'an in Enlightenment Europe, done just before the French campaigns in Egypt and growing interest in the Oriental world.
Antoine Danyau (1803-1871) was clinical head of the Charité hospital in Paris and a noted bibliophile.
RARE. Only 6 copies worldwide in OCLC. Not in Schnurrer.
SAVARY, Claude-Etienne.
Le Coran, Traduit de l'Arabe, Accompagné de Notes...par M. Savary.
A La Mecque, L'an de l'Hégire 1165 (i.e. 1751-2) [but Paris, 1787]
2 vols. 8vo. (193 x 116 mm.). Small closed paperflaw to 2P4, affecting a few words of text, a little light browning and occasional spotting, stronger at the beginning and end of both volumes, but generally very good internally in contemporary spotted calf, title labels in red and green and spine decorations in gilt. Upper joint of volume two cracked at head but holding, joints rubbed as well as head of spines, small lacks to head of volume 2, all edges yellow. A very good set. Early 19th-century ex-libris of Dr Antoine Danyau to upper pastedown of volume 1.
A RARE EDITION OF SAVARY'S TRANSLATION OF THE QUR'AN INTO FRENCH with a fictitous Mecca imprint, published only four years after the first. Savary was very critical of Du Ryer's translation, the first into French directly from the Arabic (or indeed any European vernacular). He calls it flat and boring, and accuses him of having tried to make a cohesive narrative of the separate Surahs and massacring the poetry of the original in the process.
Ludovico Maracci's translation (in Padua in 1698), he rates far more highly, as being scholarly and knowledgeable, but criticizes for being too literal - he calls it "word for word".
This is Savary's attempt at providing an improvement on these two deeply influential translations of the Qur'an, which was "a significant improvement over du Ryer's work in terms of textual interpretation." The translation, as well as his famous Lettres sur l'Egypte, was very successful. Savary had spent two years in Egypt, from 1777-1779, and claims the translation was made there; however, some contemporary sources challenged his knowledge of Arabic, and there were claims that the translation was made not in Egypt, but on his return to France, and that it was made not directly from the Arabic at all, but based on Maracci's Latin. The claim, essentially, was that Savary was not a scholar in his own right, but a talented plagiarist who was able to succeed thanks to the elegance of his style.
It is unclear why the imprint and date are given as "Mecca" and the Islamic year corresponding to 1751-1752. Printing was only introduced in the Ottoman Empire in 1729, and limited to the Müteferrika Press in Istanbul. The fictitious imprint may be a 'publicity stunt' to make the work seem Romantically exotic, or it may be on account of the censors or Church.
Nonetheless, this is a rare and interesting edition of an important contribution to the dissemination of the text of the Qur'an in Enlightenment Europe, done just before the French campaigns in Egypt and growing interest in the Oriental world.
Antoine Danyau (1803-1871) was clinical head of the Charité hospital in Paris and a noted bibliophile.
RARE. Only 6 copies worldwide in OCLC. Not in Schnurrer.