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Description
[LITERATURE]
HAMMER, J. Unpublished Tales from the Thousand and One Nights.
Excerpts from the original Arabic by M. J. de Hammer. Based on an Arabic manuscript, written in Cairo in the year 1217 of the Hegira by Sheikh Ali Alanssari; translated into French by Mr G. S. Trébutien.
Paris, Dondey-Dupré Père et Fils, 1828.
3 volumes, in-8°. Red shagreen half-binding (late 19th century). Covers preserved.
Vol. I. xlvij and 435 pages.
Vol. II. 424 pages.
The frontispieces, mentioned by some bibliographers, are missing.
A fine dedication by the translator on the half-title page of Volume I: “To the author of the Tales of Saint Santin. For the famous Library [these last two words underlined] and as a token of long-standing and faithful friendship. G. S. Trébutien.”
This translation offers French readers, for the first time and based on Arabic sources, a supplement to Galland’s version and provides a different conclusion to the frame story. Intended to enrich subsequent versions, this new translation comprises only 622 of the 1,001 nights found in the Arabic manuscript and does not include the tales translated by Galland. Hammer’s manuscript, moreover, contains fewer stories than the Bûlaq edition. Trébutien’s translation focuses solely on previously unpublished tales and organises them according to a classification that distinguishes the shorter texts, the ‘anecdotes’, from the longer texts, the ‘stories’.
The tales presented by Guillaume-Stanislas Trébutien are almost all previously unpublished in French (except for three or four) and fill 622 nights in the Arabic manuscript from which they are drawn. This document, written in Cairo in 1797 by Sheikh Ibrahim Alanssari, then in the possession of Count Wenceslas Rzwuski, is the most complete known version. Whether in terms of composition or style, Trébutien describes it as superior to the Tunis manuscript, on which Max Habicht of Breslau based his own edition. He emphasises how much this collection helps us to understand the customs and traditions of the peoples of the East, quoting Joseph Toussaint Reinaud, who says: ‘This work, no less admirable for the accuracy of its details than for the genius of its invention, is the most truthful portrayal of the beliefs of the East ’[4].
Also included:
The Thousand and One Days
Persian, Turkish and Chinese tales, translated by Petis de la Croix, Cardone, Caylus, etc...
New edition illustrated with engravings.
Paris. Alphonse Pigoreau, 1849.
Large 8vo. Half-bound in romantic green shagreen. Smooth spine, decorated with gilt metal tools. 383 pages.
Numerous woodcuts in the text.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale
Bibliophilia – A fine selection of antique and modern books
Auction location
Auction time
10/15/2026 at 1:00 PM
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