[BOCHART, SAMUEL (1599 - 1667)]. Geographia Sacra, Seu Phaleg Et Canaan : Cui Accedunt Variae Dissertationes Philologicae, Geographicae, Theologicae &c. Antehac ineditae: Ut Et Tabulae Geographicae Et Indices, longe quam antea luculentiores & locupletiores. Lugduni Batavorum : Apud Cornelium Boutesteyn et Jordanum Luchtmans ; Trajecti ad Rhenum : Apud Guilielmum vande Water, Ann. M. DCC. VII. [1707-1712].
Hardcover. Fourth edition. Vellum-bound. Folio 2°(400 x 250 x 60mm). Pagination: pp. [10], 44, [4] p., columns 318, [3] p., columns 323-332, columns 345-790, [2] p., columns 793-1139, [1] p., columns 1141-1224, [60 indexes] p., [13] leaves of plates in the form of geographical maps. Errors in pagination: columns 779-788, 877, 1072 omitted, columns 1076 repeated. Signatures: [ ]³ [a] - [g] ⁴ A-V⁴ X-Z² 2A-3F⁴ 3G² 3H-4I⁴ a-g⁴ h². With error: [g3] marked by mistake [G3]. Bound in contemporary full vellum, decorated in blind. Spine with seven raised bands and morocco lettering-piece. Initial and terminal blanks present. Texts in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Samaritan and Ethiopian and arranged in two columns. Index in four columns. Intaglio engraved portrait frontis. With Added engraved title-page printed in intaglio, signed "J. Mulder fecit" and reading: "Samuelis Bocharti opera omnia. Lugduni Batavorum : Apud Cornelium Boutestyn, et Jordanum Luchtmans ; Trajecti ad Rhenum : Apud Guilielmum vande Water, 1712." Title-page printed in red and black. 13 maps (some printed on double leaves). Head- and tail-pieces. Decorative initials. Shoulder notes.
Condition: Collated complete. Binding tight and secure. Slight grubbiness to covers. Textblock excellent with faintest touch of browning, the maps beautifully preserved. Very good. Scarce.
Note: Scarce early edition of this monument of Biblical, geographical, historical and linguistic scholarship. A complete copy of this important book including many maps, by the Renowned Samuelis Bocharti [Samuel Bochart]. A composition on the geography of Canaan and nations mentioned in Genesis. Primary text in Latin. Includes 13 maps printed on special paper, among them large folded maps. Maps of various countries are written partially in Hebrew, which is very rare for the time. The book had a profound influence on biblical interpretation. Bocharti traces the biblical roots using Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and other Semitic languages, and used Hebrew letters to write words in Arabic. Includes a comparison table between letters in Latin, Hebrew, Greek and Sumerian. An edition of Bochart's Geographia sacra was owned by Isaac Newton (now in Trinity College, Cambridge, NQ.8.27). Bochart's history of nations and languages Geographia Sacra seu Phaleg et Canaan (first printed in 1646) was widely known and exerted a profound influence on Biblical exegesis. It was a notable attempt to construct a single historical narrative from the available Semitic and classical sources. Samuel Bochart (1599 - 1667) was a French Protestant biblical scholar, a student of Thomas Erpenius and the teacher of Pierre Daniel Huet. Bochart was one of the several generations of antiquaries who expanded upon the foundation laid down by Renaissance humanists, complementing their revolutionary hermeneutics by setting classical texts more firmly within the cultural contexts of Greek and Roman societies. Thus Bochart stands at the beginning of the history of ideas as a discipline that provides the modern context for all textual studies." In the early modern period many scholars and cartographers gave serious attention to sacred geography.
