Venise

12mo., Second Edition, with engraved portrait frontispiece (original tissue guard present), neat contemporary signature on front paste-down, some light marginal spotting; contemporary mottled red and brown calf, sides with floral frame border in gilt, back tooled and ruled in gilt, second compartment with red leather label lettered and ruled in gilt, gilt edgesexpertly rebacked with old backstrip laid down, a very good, bright, clean copy. With fine early nineteenth century engraved armorial bookplate bearing the widespread motto 'pro aris et focis'. This scarce work contains the twenty-four prayers and orisons of the Armenian patriarch Nerses IV (1102-1173). Effectively a type specimen book, it was printed at the Armenian monastery on the isle of St. Lazarus off Venice and presents the prayers in no fewer than 24 different languages, including Dutch, Gaelic, Hungarian, Spanish and Russian. The collection was first issued in 1818 with the prayers present in fourteen languages; a fourth edition (1837) was several times reprinted. Brunet IV, 859; Nersessian 510.