Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ Codicum Manuscriptorum Orientalium, Videlicet Hebraicorum, Chaldaicorum, Syriacorum, Æthiopicorum, Arabicorum, Persicorum, Turcicorum, Copticorumque Catalogus, jussu curatorum preli academici a Joanne Uri confectus. Pars prima. [with] Partis secundae volumen primum, Arabicos Complectens, confecit Alexander Nicoll [with] Pars secunda Arabicos Complectens. [ complete set, 2 vols in 3, ]

e typographeo Clarendoniano [/Academico], Oxonii, first editions, 1787 - 1821 - 1835. 2 vols in 3, mixed set, 1787 and 1821 volumes contemporary boards, folio, 1835 volume recent black library buckram, gilt spine-title, folio, 45 x 28 cm,. ii, 98, 327, [41] + [2], 143 + viii, [145]-730 pp, 9 plates. Rare in the market - only one copy traced at auction, in 1959 (£1500) when Sotheby's appear to have been understandably misled into thinking that one of four parts was missing. In fact the work comprises three confusingly named elements: Pars Prima (1787), Partis secundae volumen primum.. (1821) and Pars secunda (1835), all present here. The 1787 first part of the Catalogue of the Oriental MSS., comprising those in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Coptic, was compiled over many years by John Uri, a Hungarian, who had studied Oriental literature under Schultens, at Leyden. Uri's work was a pioneering attempt to make the Bodleian's already substantial collection better known to scholars. It was, however, criticized for carelessness in the 1835 concluding part of the catalogue, where Pusey provides some 60 closely-printed folio pages of corrections and additions and observes that the entire series of Arabic Mss had required re-examination as a result of various cheats and deceptions practiced on the purchasers of those manuscripts. The second element of the Catalogue was published in 1821 and was the work of Alexander Nicoll, an exceptionally able scholar and outstanding linguist who became Regius Professor of Hebrew at the age of 29. His volume added notices of some 234 additional Arabic MSS to those recorded by Uri. But Nicoll's premature death occurred before the publication of his second part, which he had printed as far as p. 388; it was instead completed and edited (with nine lithographic plates of specimens of Arabic MSS.) by his successor in the Hebrew Professorship, Dr. Pusey, in 1835. Pusey provides altogether descriptions of 296 Arabic volumes, together with his copious additions to Uri's first portion. An ex-library set which would benefit considerably from rebinding. The condition of the volumes is generally Good but: the 1787 volume, in contemporary boards, has a split to the upper half of the rear joint and a shorter split to the front joint, with wear to the spine ends; there is waterstaining to the margins of pp 77-149 generally framing the text but somewhat impinging on it in the case of about 20 pp. Library label and marks on the front pastedown endpaper, tape label around spine. 1821 Volume: in contemporary boards with a paper spine-label, small piece of spine missing, library label on front inside board, rear board heavily rubbed and slightly worn, some mild foxing and browning to contents.1835 volume: Rebound in modern black library buckram, library label and marks on front free endpaper,a little foxing and occasional minor marks, four engravings of sunbirds bound in.