Rare first edition of a valuable Persian grammar (written in Latin), printed in Rome by the printing office of the Propaganda Fide. The third printed Persian grammar: only those of Louis de Dieu (Leiden 1639) and Greaves (London 1649) preceded it. Smitskamp, who refers to the present edition, though he had no copy to offer in his catalogue, notes that Greaves and the present author based their grammars "largely" on De Dieus, but where De Dieu wrote for a scholarly audience, Ignatius produced a practical aid for missionaries in the field.
Ignazio di Gesù or Ignatius a Jesus, born Carlo Leonelli (1596-1667) joined the order of discalced Carmelites in Italy, who sent him as a missionary to preach the Gospel in Persia/Iran (1629-1641), where he lived in Isfahan and Shiraz and learned the rudiments of Persian, and in Mesopotamia, Syria and probably Turkey and Armenia. He is best known for his work among the Gnostic Christian Mandaeans (Christians of Saint John) near Basra, attempting to convert them to the Catholic faith. After more than twenty years, he returned to Rome and from 1652 to 1661 published accounts of his experiences in the East, helping to pioneer Persian studies in Europe. An account of his travels appeared in Melchisédech Thévenots collection (Relations de divers voyages, 1663?). Though he had little training as an orientalist or a scholar, he wrote the present grammar based on information collected during his dozen years in Iran and it therefore forms an important source for the language as it was used there in the 1630s and 1640s.
With an old library shelfmark in ink on the title-page. Lacking the final blank leaf. Some light foxing and browning as usual, a slight abrasion on the title-page (device very slightly affected), but otherwise in very good condition. Amaduzzi, p. 43; Brunet III, 405; Schwab, Bibliographie de la Persica 863; Smitskamp 310c (note); for the author: Encyclopaedia Iranica XII, pp. 619-620; Lupieri, "Friar of Ignatius of Jesus (Carlo Leonelli) ...", in: ARAM periodical, 16 (2004), pp. 25-46; Nouvelle biographie générale, 25 (1858), col. 805.