£200
12mo, pp. [iv], 422, [2] + frontispiece and engraved title-page. Contemporary mottled calf, boards bordered with a gilt roll, flat spine with pale morocco label, gilt decoration at head and foot with smaller gilt tools elsewhere, marbled endpapers, edges gilt. Some light foxing. Spine a bit sunned, extremities rubbed, corners a little worn. Armorial bookplate of William Congreve Russell.
The third edition of this tour-de-force production of the Mekhitharist congregation of Benedectine monks of the Armenian Catholic Church on San Lazzaro, Venice. The monastery, which moved there during the Seventh Ottoman-Venetian War (1714-18), established a printing press, mainly for the production of classical Armenian texts for export to Constantinople. However, the press retained a stock of various typefaces and expertise in numerous languages, and produced several of these compilations of the daily prayers of St Nerses IV the Gracious translated into 24 (or more) languages. The languages and scripts here include Armenian, English, German, Russian, Syriac, Polish, and Georgian, among others. The fourth edition of 1837 (featuring a slightly different selection of 24 languages) is the most commonly met with, earlier editions such as this being much scarcer.
