Work in Syriac. PROCESSIO SANCTISSIMÆ CRUCIS.

Extremely rare work printed in Syriac. Work composed for the Maronite Church. Apart from a few lines in Latin on the title page, it is printed partly in Syriac and partly in Arabic transcribed in Syriac characters. Edition of the famous multilingual printing house of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. In order to provide the necessary linguistic support to the clergy engaged in evangelization, Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, later Grand Duke of Tuscany, founded a printing house in Rome in 1584, called Typographia Medicea, and entrusted its management to the orientalist Giovan Battista Raimondi. This workshop remained active until 1614, and it was not until 1626 that the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide), a dicastery established in 1622 to promote and supervise missions in foreign lands, took over the role of the Typographia Medicea and founded a new multilingual workshop. All pamphlets of this type, intended for missionaries or churches in distant countries, have become very rare.

British Museum, Catalogue of Printed Books, Liturgies, vol. I, 1899, p. 61.

In 8vo. 160x105 mm. Contemporary stiff vellum binding, paper label on the spine. 32 pages, 8 blank. Collation: a-b8. Pagination numbered in Syriac characters. Pages a2 and b7-8 blank. Error in composition of the first quire. Title page and text printed in red and black. Emblem of the Congregation on the title page. Handwritten ex-libris on the inside cover opposite the title page. Good copy.