Typographia Medicea

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark's Gospel in the first printed Arabic edition of the Gospels, 1590/91

The Typographia Medicea (German "Medicëische Druckerei") was a 1584 commissioned by the Roman Catholic Pope Gregory XIII. Printing and type foundry founded by Cardinal Ferdinando de 'Medici in Rome for the production of printed matter in the languages ​​and scripts of the Orient.

The Typographia Medicea was commissioned to provide printed books in Arabic and other oriental languages ​​for scholarly study and missionary purposes. The missionary intention was aimed not only at the conversion of followers of Islam and other non-Christian religions, but also and especially at the Maronite and Nestorian Christians of the oriental churches , who had split off from the Eastern Roman imperial church after the Council of Chalcedon and for the Roman Catholic Church should be regained. In the background was not least the intention to forestall a feared expansion of Protestantism in the Orient.

The Typographia Medicea was financially supported by Ferdinando de 'Medici and through the acquisition of suitable manuscripts, but it was supposed to be economically self-sufficient and also to generate profits, which subsequently proved difficult. It initially resided in the Piazza di Monte D'Oro and was directed by the orientalist and mathematician Giovanni Battista Raimondi (1536-1614), who came from Cremona . Raimondi was able to fall back on the font weights and services of the French type cutter Robert Granjon , who had been working for the Vatican printing works in Rome since 1578. In addition, in the 1990s he used the Roman dispenser of Giacomo Luna , a Maronite of Lebanese origin.

Raimondi made his debut with the first Arabic print edition of the four Gospels . The edition, dated 1590 in the title and 1591 in the explicit, was set in a large Arabic type by Granjon, the type set of which is now kept in the Imprimérie Nationale in Paris , and contained 149 woodcuts in which, according to the signatures, Leonardo Parasole and Antonio Tempesta were involved . The printed Gospel text is based on an Arabic edition from the late 13th century. In a second edition from 1619, a Latin version is added to the Arabic text as an interlinear gloss.

This was followed by works on liturgy, church music, theology and church politics, but also traditional Arabic works on medicine ( Avicenna , 1593), geography ( Idrisi , 1592) and grammar, as well as the first printed Arabic edition of Euclid's Elements (1594), as well as an Italian edition of the Confessions of Augustine (1595). After the Typographia Medicea got into economic turmoil in 1595, it was acquired by Raimondi in 1596, who continued to run it with persistent difficulties until his death.

The tasks of the Medicea later took over those on behalf of Gregory XV. Founded Typographia Polyglotta , which was run by the Sacra Congregatio de propaganda fide initiated by Hieronymus von Narni (Ottavio Mautini) and financed with funds from the Vatican.

Editions of the Typographia Medicea

The list does not claim to be complete.

  • Euangelium sanctum Domini Nostri Iesu Christi conscriptum a quatuor euangelistis sanctis idest, Mattheo, Marco, Luca, et Iohanne. Romae: in Typographia Medicea, (1590-) 1591
  • Alphabet Arabic. Romae: in Typographia Medicea, 1592
  • Mohammed al-Idrisi : De geographia vniuersali. Hortulus cultissimus, mire orbis regiones, prouincias, insulas, vrbes, earumque dimensiones & orizonta describens. Romae: in Typographia Medicea, 1592
  • ' Uthman ibn' Umar Ibn al-Hajib : Grammatica arabica dicta Kaphia autore filio Alhagiabi = Kāfiya, li-Ĭbn al-Ḥāǧib , Romae: in typographia Medicea, 1592.
  • Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammed ben Muhammed ben Dawud al-Sanhagi Ibn Adjurrum : Grammatica arabica in compendium redacta, quae vocatur Giarrumia, auctore Mahmeto filio Dauidis Alsanhagij , Romae: in typographia Medicea, 1592.
  • Avicenna : Libri quinque canonis medicinae. Quibus additi sunt in fine libri logicae, physicae et metaphysicae. Arabice nunc primum impressi. Romae: in typographia Medicea, 1593 = Kutub al-qānūn fī ăṭ-ṭibb, maʿa baʿḍ taʾlīfihi wa-huwa ʿilm al-manṭiq wa-ʿilm aṭ-ṭabīʿī wa-ʿilm al-kalām, li-Abū [! sic] ʿAlī Ibn Sīnā (digitized version of the American University of Beirut: online )
  • Euclid : Euclidis elementorum geometricorum libri tredecim. Ex traditione doctissimi Nasiridini Tusini. Nunc primum Arabice impressi. Romae: in Typographia Medicea, 1594
  • Missale Chaldaicum iuxta ritum Ecclesiae nationis Maronitarum. Romae: in typographia Medicea, 1592/94
  • Gregorio Nuñez Coronel : De vera Christi ecclesia libri decem. Authore fr. Gregorio Nunnio Coronel lusitano ordinis eremitarum s. Augustini professore, et sacrae theologiae doctore. Romae: ex Typographia Medicea: apud Iacobum Lunam, 1594
  • Aurelius Augustinus : I tredici libri delle Confessioni. Tradotti di latino in italiano by Giulio Mazzini. In Roma: nella Typografia medicea, appresso Giacomo Luna, 1595
  • Breuis orthodoxae fidei professio, quae ex praescripto Sanctae Sedis Apostolicae ab Orientalibus ad sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae vnitatem venientibus facienda proponitur. Iussu sanctissimi domini nostri Clementis VIII. Excussum Romae: in Typographia Medicea, 1595
  • Giovanni Battista Eliano : Sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae unitatem venientibus facienda proponitur ... Romae: In Typographia Medicea, 1595
  • Georgius Amira: Grammatica Syriaca, siue Chaldaica, Georgij Michaelis Amirae Edeniensis e Libano philosophi ac theologi collegij Maronitarum alumni, in septem libros diuisa. Romae: in Typographia linguarum externarum: apud Iacobum Lunam, 1596
  • Liber ministri missae iuxta ritum Ecclesia nationis Maronitarum. Romae: ex typographia Linguarum externarum, apud Iacobum Lunam, 1596
  • Gregorio Nuñez Coronel: De optimo reipublicae statu libri sex, in duos tomos diuisi. Quibus accessit Apologeticus liber de apostolicis traditionibus. Romae: ex Typographia Externarum Linguarum: apud Iacobum Lunam, 1597
  • Gaspare Viviano (Bishop of Sitia and Gerapetra): Constitutiones et decreta ecclesiae Anagninae, edita & promulgata in synodo dioecesana anno MDXCVI. Romae: ex Typographia externarum linguarum apud Jacobum Lunam, 1597
  • Caeremoniale episcoporum iussu Clementis VIII pont. Max. nouissime reformatum omnibus ecclesijs praecipue autem metropolitanis cathedralibus & collegiatis perutile ac necessarium. Romae: ex Typographia Linguarum Externarum, 1600 mense Octobris.
  • 'Abd al-Wahhab ibn Ibrahim al-Zanjani : Liber tasriphi, et est liber conjugationis. Compositio est Senis Alemami. Traditur in eo compendiosa notitia coniugationum verbi Arabici ... Addita est duplex versio Latina ... Romae: Ex Typographia Medicaea linguarum externarum, 1610
  • Sacrosancta quatuor IesuChristi DN Evangelia Arabice scripta, Latine reddita, figurisque ornata . Romae: Ex Typographia Medicea, 1619

literature

  • Josée Balagna: L'imprimerie arabe en occident. (XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles). Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris 1984 (= Islam et occident, 2), ISBN 2-7068-0856-X
  • Kaled El Bibas: La Stamperia medicea orientale. In: Aa. Vv .: Un Maestro insolito. Scritti by Franco Cardini. Vallecchi, Florence 2010, ISBN 88-8427-206-8 , pp. 207-230.
  • Sara Fani, Margherita Farina (ed.): Le vie delle lettere: la Tipografia medicea tra Roma e l'Oriente. Mandragora, Florence 2012 (= La biblioteca in mostra. Volume 5), ISBN 978-88-7461-188-1 - exhibition catalog.
  • Robert Jones: The Medici Oriental Press (Rome 1584-1614) and the Impact of its Arabic Publications on Northern Europe. In: GA Russell (Ed.), The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England , Leiden: Brill, 1994 (= Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 47), ISBN 90-04-09888-7 , p 88-108
  • Alberto Tinto: La tipografia medicea orientale. Lucca: Pacini Fazzi, 1987 (= Studi e ricerche di storia del libro e delle biblioteche, 1)
  • Hendrik DL Vervliet: Robert Granjon a Rome (1578-1589). Notes préliminaires à une histoire de la typographie romaine à la fin du XVIe siècle. In: Bulletin de l'Institute Historique Belge de Rome 38 (1967), pp. 177-231