First edition of first European Coptic grammar

Athanasii Kircheri Fuldensis Buchonii E. Soc. Jesu. Prodromus Coptus sive Aegyptiacus. Ad Cardinalem Franciscum Barberinum in quo cum linguae Coptae, sive A Egyptiacae, quondam Pharaonicae (...) & insolita methodo exhibentur. Romae, Typis S. Cong. de Propag. Fide, 1636. Small 4to, new halfleather binding with marbled boards, title on spine in gilt stamping, new endpapers, title with vignette (arms of Cardinal Barberini), (24),338,(2) pp., woodcuts in the text with images of hieroglyphs and a diagram of the old Egyptian solar system (p. 270), var. ann. in pencil, a few underlinings in ink.

Pp. 54-85 discuss the stone inscriptions found at Hsi-an-fu, describing the presence of Nestorian christian communities in China; the accompanying character, hieroglyphs and lettering in Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Greek, Hebrew and Syrian besides the Coptic, all in wood engravings in the text. With a dedication by Cardinal Franciscus Barberini (on the first 6 unnumbered pages after the title). Kircher (1602-1680) was a German Jesuit and renaissance scholar.