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(AL-TUSI, Nasir al-Din). GREAVES, John editor, Binae Tabulae geographicae, una Nassir Eddini [al-Tusi] Persae altera Ulug Beigi Tatari: opera & Studio Johannis Gravii nunc primum publicatae. London, James Flesher, 1652. [From left to right] 1 l(b) + 1t + 1 + 1 + 1 + 10(pref.) + 1 + 64 + 3 + 1 l(b). [with] MAHMUD SHAH KHULJI. Astronomica quaedam ex traditione Shah Cholgii Persae: una cum Hypothesibus Plaanetarum: Studio et Opera Johannis Gravii nunc primum publicata. London, James Flesher, 1652. [From left to right] 1 l(b) + 1t + 1 + 12(pref.+int.) + 1 + 97 + 1 l + 1 l(b).[with] GREAVES, John. Elementa linguae Persicae. Item Anonymus Persa de siglis Arabum et Persarum Astronomicis. London, James Flesher, 1649. [From left to right] 1t + 1 + 2(pref.) + 92 + 1 + 1t + 1 + 2(pref.) + 1 + 16 + 1 + 1 l(b).Together three works, small 4to, all with text in Latin and Arabic, woodcut diagrams in the second work; the first two in late nineteenth-century parchment backed boards (not uniform), the third in eighteenth-century German sheep backed boards.First editions of the first and third works, second edition of the second. The first work consists of tables of cities with their longitude and latitude, in Latin and Arabic parallel texts, as determined by al-Tusi and Ulugh Beg. The second is part of the commentary of Mahmud Shah Khulji on the elaboration of the astronomical tables of al-Tusi by al-Hasan ibn al-Husayn Shahinshah al-Simmani. The third contains Greaves's outline grammar of the Persian language, and an anonymous treatise on the abjad systrem of numerals, which is essential to the understanding of Arabic astronomical and mathematical tables.John Greaves (1602-52) was a Fellow of Merton College and professor of Geometry at Gresham College. "He learned the oriental languages, and studied the Greek, Arabian, and Persian writers on astronomy, besides Copernicus, Regiomontanus, Purbach, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler" (DNB). Lalande p. 232; Wing N233, C3923 and G1803., Bound with Maḥmūd Shāh, Khuljī. Astronomica. Londini, 1652. |
