The most illustrious name in Ethiopic scholarship. After studying philology at the Erfurt academy and at Leiden, Ludolf travelled in order to increase his linguistic knowledge. While searching in Rome for some documents at the request of the Swedish Court (1649), he became friends with Abba Gorgoryos, a monk from the Ethiopian province of Amhara, and acquired from him an intimate knowledge of the Ethiopian language.

Ludolf's Ethiopic and Amharic dictionaries and grammars were of importance far transcending his own time and remained, for well over a century and a half, the indispensable tools for the study of these languages.

First edition. 4to, [18], 560 columns, [44], 76, [16] pp., first 9 words of title in Ethiopic characters, title page in red and black, some old worming, nineteenth century green half roan, spine faded.