LUDOLFUS (Job)
Historia Æthiopica, Sive Brevis & Succincta descriptio Regni Habessinorum, quod. vulgò malè Presbyteri Iohhanis vocatur...[ second part]. Commenatarius...
BOTH PARTS WITH THE TWO APPENDICES
A scarce set, entirely complete within a contemporary binding, this copy has the Minto library label.
Ludolf was a noted linguist but never travelled to Ethiopia, though he devoted great effort in trying to establish trade connections with the isolated Christian kingdom. Hijs interest was sparked by the meeting of Abba Gorgoryos depicted in the above work in a fine mezzotint portrait) who visited the court of Ernest Duke Saxe-Gotha in in 1652. Togther Ludolf and the Gorgoryos wrote grammars dictionaries in Amharic and Ga’ez. This work is his encyclopaedic account of Ethiopia, it remained the standard work for a century, and cemented his reputation as the foremost scholar of the country.
