Lot 255
Arabian Nights
The Arabian nights entertainments
The Lord Constantine Collection
Auction: 12 October 2007 at 12:00 BST
Description
Arabian Nights
The Arabian nights entertainments, carefully revised, and occasionally corrected from the Arabic. To which is added a selection of new tales, now first translated from the Arabic originals … with engravings from paintings by Smirke. London: Longman, etc., 1811. First edition, 6 volumes, 8vo., engraved frontispiece to each volume, contemporary red straight grain morocco, the covers with a gilt centerpiece of a ruined church within gilt and bind tooled borders, the spines decorated in gilt and blind within compartments, a.e.g., slight wear to heads and tails, frontispieces foxed and offsetting to the titlepages, one or two leaves loose, [6]
Footnote
Note: Scott had originally intended to provide a new translation based on Arabic manuscripts in the possession of Edward Wortley Montagu, but in the end produced a version of the text based on Antoine Galland’s French translation, with only the sixth volume containing material translated for the first time. Scott’s version has been described as the first “literary version” and is preceded by an introduction and a substantial essay on Muslim manners and customs