These three volumes, which appeared over three years, and are dedicated to three different figures, contain 13 separate dissertations on antiquarian and linguistic topics.
The first volume is dedicated to Pierre Daniel Huet (1630-1721), a French bishop and savant, the second to Antoine Galland (1646-1715), French Arabist and translator of the 1001 nights, and the third to Gispert Cuper (1644-1716), Dutch numismatist and scholar. Dissertation xii in volume iii (pp. 141-229) is entitled De linguis americanis and discusses (with some details of vocabulary taken from earlier books) the languages of South America (languages of Brasil, Chile, Peru, Mexico, the Caribbean) and at p.208 the language of Virginia. Firstly a vocabulary list is given taken from Eliots indian grammar published at Cambridge (Mass.) In 1666, to a copy of which extremely rare book, it is clear Reland had access, and secondly, taken from the Eliot bible of 1663, we find printed chapter I of Genesis (p. 212-214). There is then another Algonquin vocabulary list (taken from Lahontans Mémoires de l´Amérique septentrionale, The Hague, 1703), followed by a short section on the Huron language, and then an account of Icelandic/Eskimo vocabulary. At the end of the volume, after the index, are printed various slavonic versions of the Lords Prayer.
A Dutch scholar, cartographer and philologist, Adriaan Reland (1676-1718) was chosen to tutor the son of Hans Willem Bentinck, favourite of William of Orange, and later first Earl of Portland. Having refused Bentincks offer to move to England he became professor of philosophy at the university of Harderwijk in 1699 and in 1701 professor of Oriental languages at the university of Utrecht. He remains well-known for his thorough and objective study of islam and for his history of the Holy Land.