Author: Thomas Hyde (1636-1703) editor
Year: 1694
Publisher: Sheldonian Theatre
Place: Oxford
Description:
3 parts in one volume: Part I. (De Ludis Orientalibus. Libri Duo ...) Mandragorias, seu Historia Shahiludii, viz. ejusdem Origo, Antiquitas, Ususque per totum Orientem ... De ludis Orientalium Libri primi ... 36 sheets (including two title pages)+184 pages with one folded copper plate, diagrams and facsimiles. Part II. Shahiludium. Traditum in tribus scriptis hebraicis, quae sunt Rabbi Abraham Abben - Ezrae elegans Poema ryhtmicum ... Omnia ex Chartis MSS jam primus deprompsit & Latinè vertit Thomas Hyde ... 2 sheets (including title), 71 pages. Part III. Historia nerdiludii, high est dicere, trunculorum; cum quibusdam aliis Arabum, Persarum, Indorum, Chinensium, & aliarum gentium ludis tam politicis quàm bellicis, plerumque Europae inauditis, multò minùs visis: additis omnium Nominibus in dictarum Gentium Linguis. Ubi etiam Classicorum Graecorum & Latinorum loca quaedam meliùs quàm hactenùs factum est explicantur. Item, Explicatio amplissimi Chinensium Ludi, qui eorum Politiam & modum perveniendi ad Dignitates in Aulâ Regiâ exponit, & egregio ac peramplo Schemate repraesentat. / De Ludis Orientalibus Lib. 2dus, quem horis succisivis congessit Thomas Hyde ... 8 sheets (including title)+278 pages with 3 folded copper plates, 14 text copper and 18 text woodcuts. Duodecimo (6 1/2" x 4 1/2") bound in full contemporary leather with five raised spine bands and red label to spine in gilt lettering. (Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana: 173; Geschichte I, 88 f; Schmid S. 200 ff) First edition.
Thomas Hyde was an English orientalist. Hyde was educated at Eton College, and in his sixteenth year entered King's College, Cambridge. He made rapid progress in Oriental languages, so that, after only one year of residence, he was invited to London to assist Brian Walton in his edition of the Polyglott Bible. In 1658 he was chosen Hebrew reader at Queen's College, Oxford, and in 1659, in consideration of his erudition in Oriental tongues, he was admitted to the degree of M.A. In the same year he was appointed under-keeper of the Bodleian Library, and in 1665 librarian-in-chief. Today he is considered the founder of scientific chess history.
Condition: Edge wear with bumped corners, hinges rubbed, book plate to front paste down else very good.