Lipsiae [Leipzig], Carolus Touchnitz, 1816. Large folio (41.3 x 26.5 cm). 24 pp.; six engraved plates with Arabic texts, each in fine, original hand-colouring, heightened with silver and gold. Contemporary (original?) grained full calf. Boards with gilt-rolled floral borders. Green endpapers.

A very rare edition, of which probably no two copies are identical, as it contains original, wonderful “neo-oriental” artwork in watercolour, profusely heightened with silver and gold paint. Written by the Turkmen poet Safi al-Din 'abd al-'Aziz ibn Saraya al-Hilli (ca. 1278-1348), edited and translated, in Latin and German, by professor of Oriental Literature at the University of Berlin, Georg Heinrich Bernstein (1787-1860). The original, Arabic, text is included, too. The German printer and bookseller Karl Christoph Traugott Tauchnitz (1761-1836), renowned for his fine editions of classical authors in folio, produced two editions, one on Dutch paper, and one on vellum. The latter, however, probably not for sale, as only two copies are known. This copy, on paper, has the maximum of six illuminated plates. Copies with fewer plates are known. We found just two auction records since WWII. Board edges worn, especially at spine ends; front hinge starting; however, otherwise excellent, internally clean and with the illuminations very detailed, and bright. Not in Brunet; not in Poggendorf.