First edition.
Spine and boards slightly and marginally faded.
A rare and pleasing copy.
First edition, illustrated at the close of the volume with six plates printed out of text.
Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Institut, Strasbourg).
Our copy is preserved in its original state, issued in a temporary paper wrapper.
Spine restored at head with small losses; marginal losses to the soiled covers; two small adhesive strips along the right margins of the final plate; author’s name and title pencilled on the upper cover.
The study of Phoenician languages was the speciality of Auguste-Célestin Judas (1805–1873).
First edition of this important work on former French Indochina, comprising:
On the half-title page of Volume VI, signed autograph inscription by Auguste Pavie: "A l'ami Vitoux, hommage affectueux. A. Pavie."
Accompanying this set is: "Carte de l'Indo-Chine dressée par MM. les Capitaines Cupet, Friquegnon et de Malglaive membres de la Mission Pavie."
Printed in Paris by Augustin Challamel in 1893 (broadsheet, folded and linen-backed, with some foxing).
The map is housed in a modern half green cloth portfolio with tips, red oasis title label, red board covers, and a red full-cloth slipcase, designed to match the text volumes.
"A pioneer of new routes in Cambodia and Laos, and a key figure in French expansion in Indochina, Auguste Pavie (1847–1925) holds a privileged place among the explorers of this region. Born in Dinan, he joined the army at seventeen, served in Cochinchina with the Marine Infantry (1868), and was sent to Cambodia in 1875 (…). In 1876, he was commissioned by the Governor of Indochina to create a new map of Cambodia, taking advantage of the construction of a telegraph line between Phnom Penh and Bangkok (…). In 1885, Le Myre de Vilers, recognizing his abilities, appointed him to the delicate post of French Consul in Luang Prabang, where he was to defend the rights France had inherited from Annam over Laos (…). From Luang Prabang, Pavie undertook a series of journeys across Laos from 1887 to 1889, regions that Mouhot and F. Garnier had only briefly explored. His investigations focused on three main directions: east (Tran-Ninh, Plain of Jars); northeast (Hua-Panh); and north (Sip-Song-Chau). It was in this last area that Pavie concentrated his efforts, seeking safe routes to Tonkin in order to open up Laos and firmly link it to France's other Indochinese possessions (…). From 1888, Pavie was no longer alone. He surrounded himself with military collaborators—Cogniard, Cupet, Malglaive, Pennequin…—and civilians such as the young diplomat Lefèvre-Pontalis and the brilliant biologist Le Dantec. Within a few years, the Pavie Mission, a veritable geographical service, would number some forty members, not counting the many indigenous auxiliaries. Dispersed in small groups along different routes, the mission members multiplied the leader's efforts, covering considerable ground. Thus, in 1890–1891, surrounded by a large team of geographers, naturalists, doctors, ethnographers, and economists, Pavie successfully completed a vast territorial survey intended to establish the future borders between French Indochina, China, Siam, and Burma (…). The scientific results of this collective enterprise, unparalleled in the French Empire, were impressive. Extending far beyond Laos, the investigations covered Tonkin, Annam, Cambodia, and southern China. In total, some 600,000 km²—an area larger than France—were surveyed and partially mapped, and 70,000 km of land and river routes were recorded (…). Truly multidisciplinary, the Pavie Mission encompassed all fields of knowledge, neglecting neither history, nor literature, nor folklore…" (Cf. Numa Broc, Dictionnaire illustré des explorateurs français du XIXe siècle, Asie, pp. 366–368).
Rare first edition illustrated with 10 folding plates, including 5 grammatical tables and 5 plates of calligraphy.
Not recorded in Blackmer, Atabey or Hage Chahine.
Half olive-green calf, spine with four raised bands framed with gilt garlands and decorated with small blind-stamped floral tools, black morocco title and author labels, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, modern binding.
Spine slightly darkened, small paper losses to the upper right corners of the first leaves not affecting the text, some foxing mainly at the end of the volume. Much better known for his role in the mission sent by Napoleon to the Shah of Persia to negotiate a counter-alliance against Turkey, Amédée Jaubert (1779–1847) was a distinguished orientalist, professor of Persian at the Collège de France, and of Turkish at the École des langues orientales, of which he became president in 1838.
Third edition, partially revised and corrected, incorporating new material.
Bradel binding in olive-green half percaline, smooth spine, bordeaux morocco-grained shagreen lettering-piece; restored and lightly soiled original wrappers preserved; modern binding.
Some scattered foxing, bookplate mounted on the verso of the front wrapper, traces of adhesive at the head and foot of the endpapers.
The first edition appeared in 1868.
This collection of twenty-six short independent pieces chiefly concerns the Chinese world and its adjacent regions (Indochina and Japan).
Very rare first edition of the new laws enacted in 1775 by Catherine II, Empress of Russia, here translated into Turkish for the recently annexed Turkic-speaking provinces taken from the Ottoman Empire.
The work is divided into two parts: the first, dated 12 November 1775, comprises the first 28 chapters (pp. 1–190); the second contains chapters 29 to 31 (pp. 191–248).
Contemporary-style half mottled sheep with small corners, unlettered spine with five raised bands decorated with double gilt fillets and gilt thistle tools, marbled paper boards, red edges, modern binding.
Pale marginal dampstaining to the upper right corner of the initial leaves.
Rare edition presenting the bilingual text in two facing columns (French–Piedmontese).
No copy recorded in the CCF.
A scarce version in the Piedmontese dialect (then the vehicular language for much of the population of the former duchy), issued by one of the Protestant Bible societies, likely intended for the Waldensian and related communities still well established in the valleys.
Contemporary full black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands ruled in blind, rubbing to the spine, triple blind-ruled panels on the covers, yellow endpapers and pastedowns, inner hinge split, all edges gilt, corners lightly worn.
Copy presented to Wilbraham Taylor by The Foreign Conference and Evangelization Committee in 1851 (printed presentation label mounted on the front endpapers).
Embossed stamp and label of the Forbes Library in Northampton on an endleaf and on the title-page.
First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with four hors-texte plates printed on chamois paper.
Not recorded by Brunet, who lists the author’s principal works.
Scattered foxing, including to the boards.
The orientalist Michelangelo Lanci (1779–1867) produced a fascinating blend of genuine erudition and improbable conjectures, shaped by the pre-critical and broadly concordist mindset then prevailing without challenge in the learned circles of pontifical Rome (Lanci being a subject of the Pope).
This largely accounts for the profound neglect into which most of his works have since fallen.
Prisse d’Avennes (1807–1879), who had worked with Champollion on the decipherment of hieroglyphic script, must have received with some surprise these observations drawn essentially from personal interpretations of Old Testament texts.
Rare first edition of this complete set gathering the three parts of this practical Cantonese manual, accompanied by one of the instructional booklets intended for the Chinese teacher.
The first two volumes are each illustrated with eight plates of ideograms printed hors texte. No copies recorded in the CCFr.
The third volume shows staining at the foot of the spine, a few small spots of foxing, and minor marginal tears with slight losses to the boards of the first volume.
A very uncommon set.
First edition, with no deluxe copies printed.
Spine faded with a small tear at the foot.
Inscribed by Roland Barthes to Pierre Dumayet.
Manuscript of 83 leaves of this French–Bunda dictionary, probably unpublished and unsigned.
This manuscript is certainly the first French–Bunda vocabulary (cf. Gay 3068 and Brunet I-1544).
Half red shagreen binding, spine with four raised bands ruled in black, gilt date at foot, minor rubbing to spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.
Second editions, partially original, of the French and Dutch translations; the text is bilingual (Dutch and French), and includes numerous passages printed in Malay (cf. Cordier, "Indosinica", 1385. Not mentioned by Quérard).
Bound in chocolate-brown half shagreen, spine with four small raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and dots, joints split then restored, marbled paper boards showing some scratches, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, small tears to edges; 19th-century binding.
Waterstains affecting the first and last few leaves of the volume.
The translator’s lengthy preface (47 pp.) appears here for the first time. Pages 235 to 344 contain exercises (original texts and their translations). "The first proof sheet of my Dictionary of the Malayan language was received from the printer on the 21st March, and the last on 11th October 1811. On the 24th of that month I corrected the first sheet of the Grammar, and both works were published in the early part of the following year. The impression was large, and, unfortunately for my labours, the extensive possessions conquered from the Dutch, where the Malayan is spoken, were gratuitously restored to them, and my sale contracted. Within these few years the Government of the Netherlands has done me the honour of causing translations of my Grammar and Dictionary, which has been hably executed by M. Elout fils, and to the politeness of M. Elout, minister for the colonies, I am indebted for copies of them." Cf. Marsden, Memoirs, pp. 143–144, cited by Cordier. The English orientalist William Marsden (Dublin, 1754–1836) was also director of the East India Company and secretary to the Admiralty. He had travelled to Sumatra in 1771 following his brother, an agent of the Company, and devoted his time there to learning the local language. "After spending eight well-used years in Sumatra, he returned to England in 1779 in hopes of securing a more lucrative position. Initially unsuccessful, he dedicated his retirement to a geographical and historical study of the island. Around this time, he became acquainted with Sir Joseph Banks, who introduced him to several eminent figures such as Dalrymple, Rennell, Maskelyne, Solander, and Herschel. He was soon elected a member of the Royal Society. His History of Sumatra, published in 1782, earned him that distinction (...) The principal fruits of his studious retirement were a Grammar and a Dictionary of the Malay language, an excellent translation of the Travels of Marco Polo (1817), with a highly valuable commentary, a catalogue of his rich collection of Oriental coins, and three Essays, the most important of which concerns the languages of Polynesia" [Hoefer].
First edition, adorned at the beginning of the volume with a folding facsimile (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1732).
Spine reinforced with an adhesive strip, minor marginal losses to the boards, some foxing.
These Practical Exercises are in fact a reply to the personal attacks and to two articles by M. Pauthier published in the Journal asiatique of Paris (nos. 66 and 67 of volume XII).
They "constitute the confirmation and complement" of his earlier work entitled "Examen critique de quelques pages de chinois relatives à l'Inde", translated by M. G. Pauthier, accompanied by grammatical discussions on certain rules of position which, in Chinese, play the same role as inflections in other languages (1841).
The frontispiece itself is a satire of Pauthier: it bears, composed by Hyacinthe Bitchourin, the Russian sinologist, this definitive remark: "Savez-vous pourquoi M. Pauthier se trompe en traduisant du chinois? C'est qu'il a une fausse idée du mécanisme de cette langue, et qu'il s'efforce de suppléer à ce qui lui manque de connoissance, au moyen de ses conjectures".
Seventh edition (cf. Playfair 1723).
Spine restored, small angular losses to the boards filled, staining to the covers, pleasant condition internally.
Alexandre-Marie Bellemare (1818-1885) served as official interpreter at the Directorate of Algerian Affairs.
First edition.
Half blue shagreen, spine with four raised bands decorated with gilt floral tools within blind-ruled compartments, blind fillet borders on indigo percaline boards, boards with marginal soiling at foot, brown paper endleaves and pastedowns, modern bookplate affixed to a pastedown, contemporary binding.
Some scattered foxing, a black ink stain on the edge not affecting the text.
Second edition, the only complete one (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1430).
Spine split with small angular losses, scattered foxing.
It deals with educational institutions, examinations, and public instruction under the various dynasties.
Appended are notes on the method used in China to study the pronunciation of characters, on the organization of the Chinese administration, and on a collection of examination questions for candidates to literary degrees.
Two memoirs bound in one volume with continuous pagination. The engineer Edouard-Constant Biot (1803-1850), son of the mathematician Jean-Baptiste Biot and pupil of Stanislas Julien, rapidly became an outstanding sinologist whose works are still consulted today.
First complete edition, constituting vol. 15 of the Archives d'études orientales published by J.-A. Lundell (9 copies recorded in the CCFr, including 1 in Lyon and 8 in Paris).
The work was originally a doctoral thesis defended in 1915, later expanded with supplements issued up until 1926.
Publisher’s binding in half blue cloth, smooth spine with minor rubbing, silver lettering on the spine, brown paper-covered boards, Chinese red ink stamps on the title and half-title leaves, corners bumped.
Some small angular paper losses on pp. 241, 243, and 707, without loss of text.
New edition illustrated with numerous engravings in the text: plants, animals, musical scores, geometrical figures, electrical devices, assorted objects, etc.
The table on p. 1323 presents the periodic classification of the elements; the figure on p. 1483 illustrates the path of light rays passing through lenses.
Publisher’s binding in half black percaline, spine titled in Chinese characters, sand-coloured boards slightly soiled at the margins, corners rubbed, endpapers partially toned.
The Cihai, or "Sea of Words," is a Chinese encyclopedic dictionary, work on which began in 1915 and which was first published in 1936.
First edition (a second edition appeared in 1896) illustrated with 6 facsimiles and a large folding map.
Not in Tailliart.
Foxing, spine cracked with small losses, a few corner defects to the boards, also lightly soiled at the margins.
Adolphe Hanoteau (1814-1897) pursued his entire military career in Algeria, attaining the rank of brigadier general; he devoted most of his work to the study of the Kabyle language, customs, and institutions. Tamasheq is a Tuareg language spoken primarily by the Tuaregs of Mali.
Fourth edition of the French translation (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1696).
Bilingual Chinese-French text. With a loose leaf of Corrigenda (1 p. in-12). Shanghai, Catholic Mission Press, T'ou-Sè-Wè Orphanage, 1906.
Half purple percaline binding with corners, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets, black cloth boards, minor superficial scratches to the covers, sprinkled edges, contemporary binding.
The first French edition appeared in 1887: it was an adaptation of a conversation guide intended for Japanese students of Chinese in Peking.
Its success lay in its practical nature, which led to further editions in 1893, 1901, 1906, and 1919.
The present edition comprises 4 parts: 1. Essential conversation formulas. – 2. Mandarins and merchants discussing business. – 3. The usual style of commands. – 4. Dialogues between mandarins. The Jesuit Henri Boucher (1857-1939), the translator, was successively a missionary in Kiang-Nan and in Japan.
Modern manuscript ex-libris "Jean-Marien Blondet" at the head of a flyleaf.
Rare first edition of the French translation established by P.-F. Henry. (Gay 2683.)
Some occasional light foxing.
The work also includes an oblong quarto atlas, in which map no. 6 has been bound upside down, containing 33 engraved plates and maps (1 to 32 plus 1bis) based on the author's original drawings.
The illustrations comprise 8 maps or plans and 25 plates depicting a variety of subjects: views, portraits, inscriptions, buildings, hunting scenes, animals, etc.
As is frequently the case, our copy lacks the out-of-text plate in volume 2 showing ancient inscriptions.
In 1809, Henry Salt was sent on a diplomatic mission to Abyssinia to establish trade relations with England. During this, his second journey to the region, he traveled along the eastern coast of Africa, visited Portuguese colonies, and collected extensive data on the hydrography of the coastal areas. In addition to the travel narrative, the work includes several vocabularies of African tribes ranging from Mozambique to Egypt: Makua, Monjour, Somali, Hurrur, Galla, Darfur, Amharic, Tigrinya, etc.; it also contains notes on Abyssinian birdlife and rare plants.
A handsome copy preserved in its original publisher’s wrappers, with plain covers and title labels pasted at the heads of the spines (minor marginal flaws to the plain covers, without significance).
First edition, illustrated with 11 lithographed plates by Théodule Devéria and printed by Kaeppelin.
Some occasional foxing.
Rare.
First and only illustrated edition with 12 engraved plates on India paper, under serpents.
Restored spine with minor tears, slight marginal tears on the boards, a crease on the corner of the second board, otherwise in pleasant interior condition.
The eighth Duke of Luynes (1802-1867) gained a significant reputation as an archaeologist, numismatist, and art collector.
First edition of the French translation of this celebrated travel account.
Our copy is complete with the accompanying atlas volume, which includes 19 plates and maps.
The three text volumes are bound in bottle-green half shagreen, smooth spines with gilt fillets and broad black rules, gilt ornamental rolls at head and foot of spines, minor rubbing to the spine of the first volume, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, original wrappers preserved, edges untrimmed.
The atlas volume, also preserving its original wrappers, is bound in a modern pastiche binding in the style of the text volumes.
Some foxing; joints of the first volume are split at head and tail of upper board.
The plates depict indigenous peoples, landscapes, weapons, utensils, and more.
First edition of this work published "by order of His Majesty the Emperor and under the supervision of the Minister of Public Instruction" (cf. Leclerc (1878) 2283).
The first volume is illustrated with 70 colour-printed plates, all hors-texte.
Contemporary half red shagreen bindings, spine with four raised bands adorned with double gilt fillets and floral gilt tooling, gilt decorative rolls at head and foot, some rubbing, cloth boards with blind-stamped borders and central device, bindings of the period.
Some rubbing to boards, water stains to the upper corners affecting the first 10 leaves of both volumes, one quire in the first volume becoming loose, boards slightly discoloured or soiled along right margins, two corners lightly bumped.
Charles Étienne Brasseur, known as Brasseur de Bourbourg (1814–1874), a French missionary in Mexico and Central America, is regarded as one of the pioneers of pre-Columbian archaeology and history. Deeply engaged in the study of indigenous languages, he announced in 1863 that he had discovered the key to transcribing the Mayan script. He later presented his principles of decipherment in the present work on the Troano Manuscript.
Volume I contains an exposition of the Mayan graphic system, for which 600 characters were specially cast at the Imprimerie Impériale. It is followed by a facsimile of the Troano Manuscript reproduced in 70 lithochrome plates. Volume II features the grammar, chrestomathy, and a Maya–French–Spanish vocabulary.
Very scarce.
Rare first edition, printed in a very small number of copies, of this extract from the Revue maritime et coloniale (cf. Cordier, Indosinica, 2385).
Contemporary Bradel binding in full marbled paper-covered boards, flat spine with red morocco label lettered lengthwise; modern binding.
Scattered foxing, two dampstains to the lower right corners of some leaves.
First edition (see Cordier, "Indosinica", 2690).
Spine cracked with small losses, internally well preserved.
Rare.
Very rare first edition.
Two small losses to the head and foot of the spine, printed wrappers slightly soiled.
The presentation of the report is signed by the Marquis de Lafressange, Antony Androuët, the Viscount de Mazenod, and Louis Lapierre.
First edition of this excellent maritime dictionary, later reprinted in 1780, 1797, and 1799.
The work is complete in all its parts and includes 31 engraved plates by Le Gouaz after the author's drawings.
Contemporary full mottled calf binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments and floral tools, red morocco title label, headcap worn down, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, red edges, upper corners worn.
Small loss to the upper left corner of the front free endpaper, tears to the left margin of the title page, occasional foxing, otherwise a pleasant copy internally.
Born in Lyon on 5 November 1743, Daniel Lescallier entered naval service in December 1765 as a writer in charge of accounting at Môle-Saint-Nicolas in Saint-Domingue.
Appointed student-commissary in February 1767, then assistant commissary of ports and arsenals in February 1770, he sailed in 1773 aboard the ship *Le Languedoc*, before being sent by ministerial order to England, Russia, and Sweden. His travel account was published in 1775. Made commissary of ports and arsenals in January 1777, he was appointed in January 1780 as colonial commissary in Grenada, recently seized by d’Estaing, then in May 1782 as commissary in Demerara (British Guiana), recently occupied by Kersaint’s division. Appointed chief commissary in Cayenne in May 1785 and first councillor to the colony’s Superior Council, he endeavoured to rouse the colony from its lethargy before returning to France in July 1788. In 1789–1790, Lescallier travelled again to England and the Netherlands to study shipbuilding techniques. In August 1790, he became assistant to the Navy Committee of the National Assembly and, in February 1792, civil commissary in the Indian Ocean colonies. Captured by the English on 22 August 1793 after the capitulation of Pondicherry, he did not return to France until 1797. Head of the Colonial Bureau at the Ministry of the Navy from August 1797, he was appointed ordonnateur at Corfu but was unable to reach his post. Named colonial prefect of Guadeloupe in July 1801, he returned to France via the United States in April 1804. He was appointed maritime prefect of Genoa in February 1806 and of Le Havre from May 1808 to August 1810. In October 1810, he was made consul general to the United States, but was captured by the English en route. He escaped, returned to France at the end of 1815, left the service, and died in Paris on 14 May 1822.
First edition of the French translation by Victor Largeau, presented in 1844 to the Geneva archaeologist Gustave-Philippe Revilliod (1817–1890) by Moors with whom he had become close.
Contemporary binding in brown half sheep with corners, spine with five raised bands and no lettering, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, soiled original wrappers preserved, modern binding.
Some occasional foxing.
An explorer—he attempted twice to cross the Sahara, the first time in this same year, 1875—Victor Largeau (1842–1897) later became a colonial administrator. He was the father of General Victor-Emmanuel Largeau (1867–1916), one of the founders of Chad.
First edition, illustrated with 6 maps and 89 engravings after the author's drawings.
Contemporary navy blue half shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt, small tear at head of spine and minor rubbing, gilt stamp of the Join-Lambert institution in Rouen to the centre of the upper board, cold-stamped fillet frame on navy blue paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges.
Some light foxing, mainly at the beginning and end of the volume; school price label affixed to one pastedown.
A well-preserved copy.
Very rare first edition, privately printed in a very small number of copies, of this offprint from the Nouvelles annales des voyages, June 1857. (cf. Gay, 418).
Some foxing.
Complete in its original state with the large folding map inserted at the end.
Jacques-Auguste Cherbonneau (1813–1882), founder of the Archaeological Society of Constantine, provides here an account of the exploratory mission to the southern region of the Regency of Tripoli, culminating in the city of Ghadamès.
First edition of this occasional text, illustrated with 4 plates outside the text.
Spine faintly faded, a rare and attractive copy.
Archbishop of Algiers from 1867, Charles Lavigerie (1825–1892) would become in 1884 Primate of Africa through his exceptional accumulation of titles, including the restored See of Carthage.
He took an early interest in the excavations of the Carthage site.
Second edition with the text printed in two columns (see Cordier, Indosinica, 2288).
The first edition was published in 1868.
Contemporary quarter fawn mirabelle sheep binding, flat spine decorated with triple gilt fillets, some rubbing to spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, bumped corners.
Théophile Marie Legrand de La Liraÿe (1819–1873), a priest of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, was sent to Western Tonkin in 1843.
During the French intervention in Annam, he acted as interpreter to Admiral Rigault de Genouilly. After leaving the Missions, he continued in this role for the Governor of Cochinchina.
He died on 7 August 1873 at the military hospital in Saigon, leaving behind manuscripts now held in the Saigon library. A street in that city bears his name (see Archives des Missions Étrangères de Paris).
Some foxing, mainly affecting the first and last few leaves.
First edition of both these rare fascicules; the first is illustrated with three folding plates at the end of the volume, the second with in-text illustrations.
Contemporary half bottle-green calf binding, smooth spine gilt with fillets and dotted rolls, as well as black fillets, some minor rubbing to joints, headcap worn, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.
One of only three known contributions to the nascent field of Assyriology by the Austrian numismatist and traveller Isidore Löwenstern (1810–1858), who served as Danish consul in Constantinople.
Bound with, by the same author: Exposé des éléments constitutifs du système de la troisième écriture cunéiforme de Persépolis. Paris-Leipzig, Adolphe Franck, 1847, 101 pp., in-text illustrations. Copy from the library of the renowned archaeologist Honoré-Théodore, 8th Duke of Luynes (1803–1867), with his ex-libris vignette from the Château de Dampierre pasted to a pastedown.
Second edition, illustrated with 13 full-page plates printed on various tinted backgrounds. The first edition was published in 1924.
This edition includes a map that was not reissued in the second printing.
The Miao people (known as Méo in Vietnam and Hmong in Laos) are an ethnic group found in southern China and northern Indochina. They speak various loosely related dialects, but without mutual intelligibility.
Today, they are generally regarded not as a single ethnic group but as a broader grouping of distinct peoples. A missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, François-Marie Savina (1876–1941) worked in Upper Tonkin, Hainan (China), and Laos from 1901 to 1941.
Pleasant copy, with some minor marginal tears to the covers, not affecting the text.
First edition published in the Bulletin de la Société des études indochinoises de Saïgon, no. 69.
Other contributions in this issue include poems, an analysis of Le Comte’s book, Lettres sur les moeurs des Chinois, and above all an insightful analytical index of the subjects addressed in the Bulletin of the Société des études indochinoises from its founding (1883) up to 1914.
Small losses and tears to the spine.
Rare first edition of this elementary Arabic grammar, the author's first publication, composed at the beginning of his teaching career in Oriental languages at Jena by the pastor and theologian Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus (1761–1851), who would later become known primarily for his systematically rationalist interpretation of the Scriptures.
Illustrated with 5 folding tables.
We have identified only three copies in the CCF (Bulac, Strasbourg, and Chambéry).
Some occasional foxing, small loss of leather to the lower left corner of the upper board.
Contemporary full tree calf binding, spine with gilt fillets, garlands and floral tools, cherry-red morocco label, gilt roll tooling to headcaps, dentelle border, gilt single fillet and egg-and-dart garland on covers, gilt single fillet on edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns with gilt dentelle border, yellow edges.
Rare first edition of this important geographical and ethnographic account, intended to provide insight into the conflict between the Afghans and the British, the latter seeking to protect their Indian frontiers from the threat posed by the Russian Empire (cf. Bourquelot V, 637).
This copy retains the folding map bound at the end of the volume: "Carte pour l'intelligence des voyages d'Alexandre Burnes".
Spine faded with small losses, boards lightly soiled at the margins, paper loss to the lower left corner of the half-title page, some scattered foxing.
The author based his work on Elphinstone’s account, whose second edition appeared in 1838, as well as the narratives of Burnes, Forster, and Masson.
Rare first edition of this grammar written in collaboration with Louis Cheikho (Théodore Rizqallah), later revised in a 1912 edition.
Contemporary half blue sheep binding, flat spine decorated with double gilt fillets, joints restored, green vellum tips, some rubbing to the marbled paper boards.
Stamped marks and pencil annotations to the endpapers and title page.
Louis Cheikho (Théodore Rizqallah) was a Jesuit of the Chaldean rite, a renowned Arabist and Orientalist, and founder of the Bibliothèque orientale in Beirut.
First edition, illustrated with a folding map and 11 tinted lithographic plates (cf. Gay 3137).
Contemporary half aubergine sheep, smooth spine ruled and lettered in gilt, some rubbing to hinges, one joint fragile, marbled paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers, speckled edges.
Some repairs to the spine, occasional foxing.
Arbousset, a Protestant missionary and explorer, recounts the discovery of the Mont des Sources and offers vivid descriptions of the peoples among whom he lived: Bastaards or mixed-race communities, Hottentots, Bushmen, Kaffirs, etc.
Rare.
Collected edition, bringing together in a single volume the Grammar of the Annamite Language, first published in 1864, and the Vocabulary, issued as early as 1861. (cf. Cordier, Indosinica IV, 2297.)
Spine restored, with minor losses at head and foot; some occasional foxing within.
A naval officer and Orientalist, frigate captain Gabriel Aubaret (1825–1894) served as the first French consul in Bangkok in 1863. His true mission, however, was to negotiate with the imperial court of Hué for the cession of the provinces of Cochinchina to France. On June 21, 1864, Aubaret signed in Hué a new treaty aligned with the terms desired by the court of Annam. The three eastern provinces were returned to the court of Hué in exchange for a French protectorate over all six provinces of Cochinchina. While the Emperor’s suzerainty was upheld in the treaty, a specific clause stated that this did not imply vassalage.
First edition, accompanied by the original text with interlinear translation, grammatical analysis, and a Maya–French vocabulary, published by Count H. de Charencey.
A pleasant copy.
Contemporary full green cloth, flat spine slightly sunned, gilt title, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Grammatical and lexicographical study based on a short text in the Maya language written around 1562 by an indigenous chronicler named Nakuk-Pech.
From the library of the orientalist Emile Sénart, with his ink stamp and a printed presentation slip: "Avec tous les compliments de l'auteur. De Charencey".
First edition of the French translation by Antoine Gilbert Griffet de La Baume of the first two volumes of "Asiatick researches, or, Transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal for enquiring into the history and antiquities, the arts, sciences and literature of Asia, Calcutta, 1788–1790" (cf. Chadenat 4934).
The first volume, Meteorological Journal kept by Colonel T. D. Pearse from 1785 to 1786, is illustrated with 33 full-page plates; the second, Meteorological Journal kept in Calcutta by Henry Trail from 1785 to 1786, with 11 plates and 2 tables, including one large folding plate.
Modern bindings in black half morocco, flat spines ruled with double gilt fillets, marbled paper boards, hand-marbled endpapers.
Some light foxing, a few restorations to corners (upper or lower) of the second volume.
This remarkable typographical edition features several plates and tables printed in Arabic or Bengali characters, the latter being the first use of this language type in France. Among the essays are: vol. 1: Dissertation on the Spelling of Oriental Words – Account of a Meeting with the Tichou Lama – Report on a Journey to Tibet – Observations on the Sykhs – On Hindu Literature – Conversation about the City of Gondar and the Sources of the Nile – On Ordeal among the Hindus; vol. 2: Discourse on the Arabs, Tartars, and Persians – On the Hebrew Origin of the Afghans – On Hindu Chronology – On the Indian Game of Chess – Introduction of Arabic Words into the Persian Language – On Hindu Astronomical Calculations – Description of the Kingdom of Nepal, etc.
A nephew of the historian and theologian Henri Griffet, Antoine Gilbert Griffet de La Baume (Moulins, 1756 – Paris, 1805) settled in Paris in 1776, where he was briefly employed at the Ministry of the Interior. He went on to translate numerous works from English and German, and contributed to various periodicals including the Bulletin de Littérature, La Décade, Journal Encyclopédique, Mercure de France, and Censeur universel anglais (cf. Hoefer).
First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a portrait of the author and 29 engraved plates depicting objects, ornaments, coins, plants, and animals (cf. Cordier, Bibl. Japonica, 447. Gay, 3151. Brunet, V, 850).
Contemporary full marbled calf bindings, flat spines richly decorated with gilt typographic tools, gilt roll tooling at head and tail, brown morocco title-pieces, dark green morocco volume labels, gilt roll-tooled borders on boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets on board edges, yellow edges.
A Swedish botanist and naturalist, Carl Peter Thunberg (1743–1828) studied medicine and natural history at Uppsala and became one of Linnaeus’s most brilliant pupils.
In 1771, he sailed as a surgeon aboard a ship of the Dutch East India Company. Upon arrival at the Cape, he remained in the colony for three years, exploring regions inhabited by the Hottentots and the Kaffirs while collecting specimens of plants and animals. In 1775, he traveled to Java, stayed in Batavia, and eventually reached Japan. He settled on the island of Deshima, in Nagasaki Bay, where the Dutch trading post of the Company was located. There he worked as a physician and obtained permission to botanize in the nearby mountains, where he collected a large number of rare and previously unknown plants, along with many natural history specimens. In 1776, he accompanied the Dutch Company’s director on a visit to the shogun in Edo (Tokyo), allowing him to explore further and gather more botanical samples. He returned to Sweden in 1779. The first volume recounts the voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, his stays at the Cape, and his first journey inland; the second volume describes his second trip along the Kaffir coast, return to the Cape, journey to Java, and arrival in Nagasaki; the third is entirely devoted to Japan: trade with the Dutch and Chinese, government, administration, religion, language, character and portrait of the Japanese, zoological observations, minerals, etc. The final volume continues with Japan: food, festivals, weaponry, agriculture, calendar, etc., followed by the account of the return voyage via Ceylon. It also includes Lamarck’s explanations of the eight natural history plates.
A rare copy of this important travel account.
Provenance: From the library of the Château de Menneval, with armorial bookplates on the pastedowns of each volume.
Very rare first edition of the French translation by J. Castéra, illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of the author (cf. Sabin 43417. Leclerc 756).
Stamp marks scratched out on the half-title and at the end of the volume, dated 22 August 1878, occasional foxing.
Contemporary half havana sheep binding, flat spine decorated with gilt fillets, fleurons and rose tools, red morocco title label, spine restored, marbled paper boards with marginal fading, one upper corner slightly bumped.
Pages 261 to 274 contain a Vocabulary of the Algonquin Language and that of the Knisteneaux, and pages 304 to 310 a Vocabulary of the Chipiouyane Language [Chippeway].
First edition, illustrated with four plates including a map of the Sudan.
The plates depict human types and a map of Sudan, drawn "according to the Negro slaves in Bahia".
Modern Bradel binding in black half shagreen, smooth spine decorated with two gilt floral tools, gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, original wrappers preserved (small hole on rear board).
A naturalist and explorer, Francis de Castelnau undertook, between 1843 and 1847, a major expedition across South America, notably visiting Peru and Brazil.
In 1848, he was appointed French consul in Bahia. Upon his arrival, he observed that several African-born slaves could read and write Arabic and Libyco-Berber. Through interviews, some of them spoke to him about the Niams-Niams, or tailed men, said to live in a region referred to here as "Sudan", corresponding to present-day Nigeria. In this work, Castelnau presents the information he gathered on the subject. He describes several tribes from the Sudan region represented among the Bahia slaves: Nagos, Gèges or Dahomeys, Gallinhas, Minas, Borgos or Bargous, Tapas, Angols or Congos, Hausas, Fulanis or Foullatahs. He then recounts the interrogations of Bahia slaves who claimed to have seen or heard of the Niams-Niams, thereby collecting a wealth of ethnographic and geographic information on that part of Africa. The volume ends with a vocabulary section in several Sudanese languages (Hausa, Fulani, Courami, Java).
A handsome and scarce copy.
Second edition, the first having been published in 1824 (cf. Gay 3389).
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, in blue paper with a plain temporary cover, and a title label affixed at the head of the spine.
Some minor foxing, a faint water stain in the right margin of a few leaves at the end of the volume.
At the age of twenty, Armand-Pierre Caussin de Perceval (1795–1871) departed for Constantinople as an interpreter. He travelled through Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon, and served as a dragoman in Aleppo in 1820.
Upon returning to France, he was appointed to the chair of colloquial Arabic at the École des Langues Orientales, and succeeded his father in 1833 as professor of Arabic at the Collège de France, before being elected to the Académie des Inscriptions in 1849.
First edition on ordinary paper, bearing the correct colophon dated August 25, 1978.
With a printed stamp to the upper right corner of the half-title page; publisher's price sticker affixed to the foot of the lower cover.
A handsome copy.
Very rare first edition of this excellent grammar.
A few occasional spots, otherwise a pleasing copy.
Contemporary-style binding in half forest green morocco-grained shagreen, spine with five raised bands, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, binding signed by Laurenchet.
The third part contains fables, tales, and poems in both Wolof and French.
Abbé David Boilat (Saint-Louis, Senegal, 1814 – Nantouillet, 1901), a missionary in Senegal, left behind a significant body of work: this grammar, the Esquisses sénégalaises, and several unpublished manuscripts.
Autograph letter dated and signed by Georges Dumézil to Thierry Maulnier—though not referred to by name—four pages on a bifolium written in blue ballpoint pen on stationery bearing the letterhead of the Académie française, discussing his recent work "Le dieu masqué".
Rust marks from a paperclip visible at the top of the leaves.
Georges Dumézil expresses agreement with the views of his fellow Immortal: "Je reconnais pour moi cet agnoticisme indulgent (156 - 787) ce scepticisme sans découragement dans son 'léger sourire' (324, - et la fin de 604, 611...) [...] Le Dieu masqué suppose un dieu, ou l'équivalent. Je pense moi, au conte d'Edgar Poe, 'Le spectre de la mort rouge' : quand on l'a dépouillé de ses voiles, démailloté, démasqué, il ne reste rien de palpable ni d'imaginable. Le mystère de son mouvement, de son être est néant. Et pourtant, il tue, donc il est."
The historian of religion continues, refining his line of thought: "Chez l'homme, le foisonnement des neurones, le langage qui en est sorti (voir 163, 172 et surtout 242, où vous rejoignez Hagège), commandent, réclament l'exercice, et tout s'ensuit. Et puis, il y a ce que j'ai envie d'appeler le besoin de confort, chaque individu est engagé pour une part minime, dans le mouvement d'évolution dont il est produit, et dont, pro parte nirili, sans en avoir connaissance, il prépare la suite le corps humain, (si des inventions à double effet lui en laissent le temps) travaille volens nolens pour on ne sait quoi, qui se réglera dans des centaines, des milliers de siècles." while also offering a few minor points of divergence.
He concludes his letter with this fine compliment: "Vous rejoignez sur ma tablette intime Marc Aurèle (en mieux habillé) et Sénèque (sans sa réthorique). J'attends le quatrième troupeau des vaches sacrées. Tel est, pour 1986, mon premier voeu..."
First edition printed in small numbers.
Traces of horizontal folds on the first cover, otherwise a nice copy.
Signed by Charles-Louis-Augustin Letellier at the top of first cover.
Second edition with some parts in first edition as it was revised.
Spine slightly browned, first cover marginally soiled, a charm at head of first endpaper, handsome interior condition.
Rare.
First edition with a beautiful allegorical frontispiece showing the city of Babylon and its tower of languages in the background, and 4 folding plates of medals and coins.
Armorial copy with the arms of the city of Amsterdam.
Contemporary Dutch binding in full marbled brown sheep. Decorated spine with raised bands. Black morocco title label. Arms of the city of Amsterdam stamped in gilt at the center of the boards. Framing fillet with fleurons in the corners, framing frieze. Edges gilt. Some rubbing. Gilt slightly faded. Handsome copy.
The rare first collected edition, with a frontispiece portrait. This edition contains most of Rivarol's writings and notably numerous short pieces, but it is not entirely complete; certain royalist or monarchist writings were not retained in this edition under the Empire. At the beginning of the fifth volume, a letter from Madame Rivarol thanking the publisher for having removed the calumnious and mendacious notice from volume I. This notice, indeed, has been removed from numerous volumes.
Contemporary bindings in full marbled brown sheep. Spines decorated with 5 different small fleurons. Dark brown calf title and volume labels. Headcaps torn away, except at foot of volume I. Set heavily rubbed with some lacks to spines. Joints of volume I cracked at head and foot. Upper joint of volume 5 cracked. All corners bumped.
