[HINDOUISME] Recherches sur la religion des Malabars. Ouvrage extrait d'un manuscrit inédit de la Bibliothèque royale, et publié par E. Jacquet

Very rare first edition of this publication by the young Belgian Orientalist Eugène-Vincent-Stanislas Jacquet (1811-1838), whose career was as swift as it was promising, but tragically cut short by tuberculosis.

Illustrated with a figure at the end of the text.

Only one copy in the CCF (Lyon).

Some minor foxing.

Binding in half black shagreen, smooth spine decorated with cold-stamped garlands and golden fillets, black oasis leather title label, cold-stamped garland on black silk boards, a slightly bumped lower corner, modern binding.

A disciple of all the renowned Orientalists of Paris (Burnouf, Silvestre de Sacy, Jaubert, Abel-Rémusat), he learned Chinese, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and Turkish in record time, not to mention several other minor languages. The text presented was written by a Jesuit of the French mission on the Coromandel Coast in the early 18th century, amid the controversy within the Catholic world, especially among missionaries, surrounding the issue of the 'Malabar rites'; it presents both Christian rites and Hindu practices, with a much greater focus on the latter, making it a first-hand testimony of the religion practiced in this part of India.