Essai sur l'histoire de l'instruction publique en Chine et de la corporation des lettrés, depuis les anciens temps jusqu'à nos jours ; ouvrage entièrement rédigé d'après les documents chinois[Essay on the History of Public Education in China and of the Corporation of Literati, from Ancient Times to the Present Day; Entirely Based on Chinese Sources]
First edition (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1430).
Our copy is preserved in its original temporary grey paper wrappers.
This is the first memoir only of a monograph that was eventually completed in 648 pages.
Unlettered spine split with losses, chipped corners to the wrappers, occasional foxing throughout.
The engineer Edouard-Constant Biot (1803-1850), son of the mathematician Jean-Baptiste Biot, studied under Stanislas Julien and rapidly established himself as an outstanding sinologist whose scholarship remains authoritative today.
Provenance: From the library of the celebrated mathematician Michel Chasles (1793-1880), member of the Académie des sciences...
