Fourth edition, one of two simultaneous issues, of a thorough scholarly study of classical, biblical and "oriental" chronology, by the leading linguist and linguistic scholar of his generation ("the greatest scholar of his age" PMM), the French orientalist Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609). As a devout Christian, Scaliger was certainly no friend to Islam, yet he was far ahead of his time in viewing Arabic as an important field of study in its own right, not just a tool for converting Islamic peoples to Christianity, and he showed sympathy for Arabic culture. Like his predecessors, he used Arabic for biblical exegesis, but also studied the Quran, medical, mathematical and astronomical texts and other works originally written in Arabic. In the present work, Scaliger studied and compared the calendars and historical chronology of the Greeks, Romans, Persians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Jews and others, attempting to link them so that their dates could be related to those of the European calendar, which had itself just been reformed under Pope Gregory. Scaliger's work in this area "towers above that of his contemporaries" (PMM) and served as an essential key to modern historical scholarship.
Internally in very good condition, only occasionally a small stain. Binding slightly stained, spine discoloured, but otherwise good. Alan Crown, Samaritan scribes and manuscripts, pp. 276-277; Smitskamp, Philologia Orientalis 65.