Description

Arabic Greek Orthodox Hymns / Early Jerusalem Printing:

كتاب الا كطويخوس تاليف ابينا القديس يوحنا الدمشقى وهو يشتمل على الثمانية الالحان للقيامة ليرتل في ايام الاحاد على دور السنة ثم تلى الالحن المذكورة الاكسابستلاريات وذيو مالات لا يوثينا والاناجيل المختصة بالقيامة .

اورشلیم بمطبعة القبر المقدس البطريركية المختصة بدير الروم العامر و بمناظرة يوحنا لازاريذيس

[Book of the Epistle of St. John of Damascus, Composed by our Holy Father John of Damascus. It contains the eight hymns of the Resurrection, to be chanted on Sundays throughout the year. Following these hymns are the Exapostolaria, Eleven Sunday Matins Resurrection Eothina Gospels, and the Gospel accounts on the Resurrection.]

Jerusalem: Patriarchal Press of the Holy Sepulchre 1854.

Title page, 450 pp. with 3 full-page woodcut images, contemporary dark grey cloth spine with brown goat spine, pieces with older printed Greek text used as endpapers, rubber stamps of Jan Scisławski and Discalced Carmelite monastery in Kraków on endpapers, first and last pages and some on text pages, publisher’s stamp on the verso of the title page, speckled edges (sporadic stamps printed over text, old annotations in Arabic on endpapers, light staining and foxing, a tear in front loose endpaper repaired wit modern tape, cracks in hinges, old paper label with a number on the rear loose endpaper, otherwise in a good used condition).

This rare book in Arabic and partly Greek text was printed for Arab Christians of the Orthodox Church. The Arab Orthodox Movement, which aimed to promote the Arabization of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Antiochian Orthodox Church, gained significant strength in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The book was printed by the press established by the Society of the Holy Sepulchre on the grounds of the Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem in 1849. This occurred only three years after the first Christian press was set up in the city by an Austrian Franciscan monk, Sebastian Frotechner, who brought the necessary equipment, machinery, and ink-printing letters from Austria.

Provenance

The book bears the stamps of a prominent Polish collector, Jan Scisławski (1842-1910). He was a Catholic priest and book collector from St. Petersburg. Before leaving the city, he donated his library to the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Kraków. The stamps from this library also appear in the book.

Since many books bearing the stamps of the Discalced Carmelite monastery circulate openly in the book trade and are photographed online, we can infer that the library has sold parts of its collection in the past.