ALCORAN Alcorani Textus Universus ex correctioribus Arabum exemplaribus summa fide, atque pulcherrimis characteribus descriptus, eademque fide, ac pari diligentia ex Arabico idiomate in Latinum translatus ; appositis unicuique capiti notis, atque refutatione : His omnibus praemissus est Prodromus… Auctore Ludovico Marraccio.

First edition of this important translation by Maracci and the first biography of the Prophet published in Europe.

In 1691 Ludovico Marracci, confessor of Innocent XI, after more than forty years of study of the Qur’an and the various Muslim commentators, published the first volume, a Prodomus to an edition of the Qur’an, in which appeared the first biography of Mohammed in Europe according to Arabic sources and which Hinckelman praised in his Arabic edition of the Qur’an in 1694. In 1698 he completed his work with two other volumes of an annotated translation, the Arabic text and the refutation. This gigantic work Marracci was to propose it to the missionaries in the land of Islam as a vade mecum, allowing them to refute point by point the possible objections of their Muslim adversaries. The work is presented under the double and singular aspect of a commented translation of the sacred text of Islam and of its total questioning, both for the whole doctrine, refuted in the preamble, and for the propositions refuted one after the other. This provision is probably due to the defense of Pope Alexander VIII, on the occasion of the republication by Bibliander of the Cluniac Corpus, to publish the Qur’an either in the text or in translation. But, in fact, Marracci’s undisputed merit will have been to have been the first to study and disseminate the Arabic sources of Islamic religious doctrine.

“The date of the 17th century does not occur by chance but is usually connected to the appearance at the end of it of the Latin translation and critical discussion of the Qur’ân by Ludovico Marracci (1612–1700). Marracci was a member of the order of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God, a prominent figure in the Catholic Rome of his time, and even confessor to Pope Innocent XI, but at the same time he was a renowned scholar of Oriental languages and the author of many works. Amongst these works, his major accomplishment was his Alcorani textus universus which appeared in 1698 in Padua. Ludovico Marracci is generally considered today as the first “modern” Western translator of the Qur’ân, the first one to make wide use of Islamic exegetical and other sources and the translator who produced the first faithful and correct translation from the Arabic. This is almost taken for granted in the works related to these topics which have been appearing over the last few years. Thus, in this line of thought, we find it stated that Marracci’s translation was in fact the “best ever made translation into Latin.” According to Bernard Lewis, in his essay on Islam and the West, “Marracci knew Arabic very well, and he consulted a wide range, impressive for that time, of Arabic sources.” It is taken for granted that Marracci’s translation “outclassed early efforts.” Specialists in the field of Western translations and scholars of Muslim exegesis share the same high opinion. Bobzin stresses his high esteem for Marracci’s translation in various works. Notwithstanding the work’s vigorous polemical intent and contents, Bobzin praises “its undeniable philological merits” (Roberto Tottoli, New Light on the Translation of the Qur’ân of Ludovico Marracci from His Manuscripts Recently Discovered at the Order of the Mother of God in Rome, Brill, Islamic History and Civilization, 2015, vol. 113).

“[This edition was prepared by] Ludovico Marraccio (also known as Luiggi Marracci in Italian, 1612-1700) and published in Padova (Italy). The author was a monk of the Jesuite Order and, due to good education, had a good command of the Arabic language. The Pope appointed him as the professor of Arabic in the College of Wisdom – Sapienza University of Rome (in Italian, Sapienza means wisdom), for his proficiency in that language. He later declined the promotion of being appointed as Cardinal. His edition, preserved in various libraries, entitled as Alcorani Textus Universus (A complete text of the Qu’ran) and is published in 2 volumes. There are two main texts in these volumes : the first one is the Arabic original and the second one is the Latin translation. The edition also included a short outline of Muhammad’s (peace upon him) life, with notes and ‘refutations’ of Islamic beliefs. Luiggi Maracci’s introduction (Ad refutatione Alcorani) also compiled in a form of ‘refutation’ comparing the Qu’ran with the Christian doctrines. Nevertheless Marracci has acknowledged the importance of Islamic exegetics (tafsir) : in some parts of his explanations, he refers to ‘Beidavius’, and Zamchalcerius (meaning ‘Abd Allah al-Baydawi and Umar al-Zamalhshari, extremely popular in the Ottoman empire). There are also some links to ‘Thalebiensis’, meaning Abu Ishaq al-Thalabi… Marracci’s edition gained much popularity mostly due to its Latin translation, widely used by European Orientalists. This translation became an important source of other renditions: for instance the one by Georges Sale (first published in 1734) into English” (Mykhaylo Yakubo, History of Printing of the Qu’ran in Europe : Editions, their Quality and Accuracy, 20165, pp. 51-76). “Ludovico Marracci’s translation of the Holy Quran (published 1698) is, in our view, one of the most elaborate translations of this text into European languages. The abundance of impressionistic and sketchy views on this translation which have been, by and large, evoked by Marracci’s anti-Muslims sentiments and arguments, have overshadowed his painstaking linguistic achievement… By the year 1698, the date of publication of Marracci’s translation, Muslim Turks were in control of all North Africa and a number of European countries. This seems to have evoked a number of translations of the Quran including the first German translation by Schweiggern (1623). Against this evolving background Marracci’s translation came to pin down the exact wording of the Quran in Latin, a task which was not undertaken by the first Latin translation by Retensis and Dalmati published in 1543… Marracci’s translation under the title Refutatio Alcorani is central to the study of the rise of a specific religious genre in European languages… The most striking aspect of Marracci’s translation of the Quran is the fact that, contrary to the general belief, and quite unexpectedly, following the flamboyant title, Refutatio Alcorani, it is ‘faithful to the original” (Omar A. Sheikh Al-Shabab, in : The Place of Marracci’s Translation of the Holy Quran, King Saud Univ. Vol. 13, Lang. & Transl. pp. 57-74). Very good copy, from the library of the Princes of Liechtenstein (bookplate)