DURET, Claude (1570–1611)

Lot 192
13.07.2022 10:30UTC +00:00
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£ 2 268
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 794617
Lot 192 | DURET, Claude (1570–1611)
Estimate value
£ 2 000 – 3 000
DURET, Claude (1570–1611)

Thresor de l'histoire des langues de cest univers. Yverdon: l’imprimerie Societé Caldoriana, 1619.

Second edition of an important linguistic work bound for Charles Kerr, 2nd Earl of Ancram. It is a reissue of the sheets of the first edition with a new title-page (Brunet). The work treats with over 50 languages, modern and ancient, well illustrated with many woodcut alphabets, including in Chinese and Japanese characters. ‘In 1613 Claude Duret, a follower of Vigenère, was finally able to publish the Chinese and Japanese alphabets that Edmond Auger had promised to supply for Vignière. He also gives the ‘numbers’ in Chinese characters .. He provides examples of how European names were written in Japanese and includes the Kanji script. Duret also includes a copy, in Japanese with French interlinear translation, of the patent by the ‘king’ of Bungo granting the Jesuits the right to build a church in the city of Yamaguchi.’ (Lach Asia vol. II, pp. 522-23). There is a 15 page section dealing with Canada and Native American languages, a discussion of the first books made, the first libraries, and the invention of printing. The work ends with a history of the development of language and a chapter on the sounds and language of animals. USTC 6808392; Alden II 619⁄45: ‘Includes accounts of West-Indian and Canadian Native languages’. Sabin 21420: ‘All after page 947 refers to America’. Brunet, II, 916. 



4to (227 x 155mm) Title with woodcut printer’s device, folding table, woodcut alphabet illustrations (minor spotting in places, title slightly dusty). Contemporary English calf, covers bordered with a double blind rule, arms of Charles Kerr, 2nd Earl of Ancram gilt stamped at centre, spine with raised bands, gilt tooled in compartments at slightly later date, morocco label gilt (a little worn at extremities). Provenance: Charles Kerr 2nd Earl of Ancram (1624–1690, binding) — Unidentified C19th Engraved armorial bookplate.





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