Földvári Books

Early Printed Latin Quotations from the Qurʼan

Dionysius Carthusianus (Denis, the Carthusian); [Petrus Blomevenna] [Essche, Nicolas van]

[Contra Alchoranum] D. Dionysii Carthusiani Contra Alchoranum & sectam Machometicam libri quinque. 1 De perfidia machometica & fide catholica, in generali. 2 Contra Alchorani errores singulos, in speciali. 3 Contra Machometi doctrinam, multaque Sarracenorum scripta. 4 Alchorani refutatio ex Euangelicis documentis. 5 Dialogus Christiani & Sarraceni de fide utriusque. Eiusdem De instituendo bello aduersus Turcas, & de generali celebrando Concilio. Contra vitia superstitionum.

Coloniae [Köln]: apud Peter Quentel, Anno XXXIII [1533]. With two large woodcut illustrations, the Virgin and Child on verso of title and woodcut of the author at end. Woodcut initials. First edition. In later gilt burgundy maroquin. Gilt floral ornaments and title on spine. Marbled endpapers. Gilt edges. Green silk bookmark. [16], 628, (i.e. 626), [2] p. (Pages 113 and 178 omitted in pagination.) Signatures: AA8, A-Z8, Aa-Nn8, Oo10, Pp-Qq8. Two leaves misbound: Oov–vi after Qqiiii. Pages trimmed, that occasionally effects the printed marginals and page headers. Two wormholes, effects the upper part of the last four signatures, slightly the text as well, partly restored with old paper. Otherwise clean. Engraved bookplate and printed bibliographic reference on inner front panel. Collection vignette on front and rear endpapers. Collection inscription and stamp on additional endpaper. Overall in fine condition.

First edition of Denis the Carthusian’s treatise against Islam with numerous quotations from the Qurʼan. Preceded the earliest complete Latin edition of the Qurʼan by ten years.

“Contra Alchoranum” the anti-Islamic work of the Carthusian monk Dionysius (1402–1471) was written around 1454, but only printed some eighty years later, in this edition. It was edited by Petrus Blomeuenna, whose dedicatory epistle is addressed to Emperor Ferdinand I. The laudatory poem about Dionysius Carthusianus that closes the book was written by Nicolas van Essche (1507–1578).

Dionysius cites passages of the Qur’an, in the Latin translation of Robert of Ketton, and counters them by biblical quotations, he places these Qur’anic theses and biblical antitheses in the mouths of a Christian and a Saracen as a fictitious dialogue. He also encourages crusades against the Ottoman Turks, who shortly before he wrote this treatise, had conquered Constantinople.

“Contra Alchoranum” is considered to be the first printed source in Latin of the legend of Bahira or Sergius the Nestorian Monk, who according to the story together with three Jews conveyed the text of the Qur'an to Mohammed, with massive falsification of the Biblical traditions.

The book has been published ten years earlier than the first printed version of the entire text of the Qurʼan in Latin translation (Machumetis Saracenorum principis; Basel, 1543), and uses the same translation by the English scholar Robert of Ketton (Robertus Ketenensis; 1110–1160). In 1540 a paraphrased abridged German translation of “Contra Alchoranum” was published in Strasbourg under the title “Alchoran. Das ist, des Mahometischen Gesatzbuchs […]” whose translator was probably Heinrich von Eppendorff.

Bibl.: Francisco, A.: Martin Luther and Islam. A Study in Sixteenth-Century Polemics and Apologetics. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007. pp. 16–17.]

[VD 16 D 1863.; USTC 626366.; Adams D 539.]

.

Price: €15,000.00