Lot 78
£882
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 21 June 2023 at 11:00 BST
[Title in Malayalam at head:] Nasranikal okkakkum ariyentunna samksepavedarttham]. Rome: [no printer], 1772. 8vo, contemporary boards, signatures pi1 A-R8 S2, Malayalam types throughout (except for title-page, partly in Latin), wood-engraved vignette to title-page and first page of text, decorative borders throughout
Note: First edition of the first book printed entirely in Malayalam, a catechism by Clemente Peani (1731-1782), missionary for the Propaganda Fide in Kerala. He also produced a Malayalam alphabet (Alphabetum Grandonico-Malabaricum), printed in the same year, but only partly in Malayalam.