Frankfurt: Prostat apud Johann David Zunner; typis Balthasaris Christophori Wustii Senioris, 1681. First edition. Folio, [168]ff, a-rr4, plus 2 preliminary blanks and 2 at rear. Text mainly in Latin, with some Ge'ez, Hebrew, Arabic, etc. in the comparative language section. Title in red and black, 8 engraved plates (7 folding) and two tables. The folding map which is found with some copies of this text is not present here, but was not completed until 1683, and generally issued with editions after that date Contemporary full vellum, ms title on spine. Front blanks with tears and folds, light damp stain extending just into the margins of the title page. Contemporary annotation to title. One or two instances of minor marginal worming, edge tear to N3, no text affected. A couple of the plates with edge tears, but generally clean. A nice copy.

A cornerstone work of Ethiopian studies, Hiob Ludolf's (1624-1704) Historia Aethiopica offered the first systematic European account of Abyssinia, drawing on Jesuit sources and direct collaboration with the Ethiopian scholar Abba Gorgoryos (1595-1658).  The 4 sections cover nature, the land, the peoples and culture, government and succession of kings, religion and the progress of the Christian church there, literature, economy, and other topics.  Among the earliest visual representations of Ethiopia available to European readers, the suite of plates shows wildlife from monkeys eating ants to rams pulling carts, royal lineages, a beheading scene of Capuchin missionaries, and other vivid scenes.   

Ludolf would publish supplementary volumes in 1691, Commentarius, 1693, Relatio nova de hodierno Habessiniae statu, and 1694, Appendix secunda.  

Price: $1,500.00