Alphabetum tibetanum missionum apostolicarum commodo editum. Præmissa est disquisitio qua de vario litterarum ac regionis nomine, gentis origine moribus, superstitione, ac manichaeismo fuse disservitur. Beausobrii calumniæ in Sanctum Augustinum, aliosque ecclesiæ patres refutantur. Studio et labore Fr. Augustini Antonii Giorgii eremitæ Augustiniani
Rome: typis Sacræ Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, 1762. Second edition, revised.
Quarto (10 15/16” x 8 1/8”, 278mm x 207mm): π2 a-l4 A-Iiiii4 Kkkkk6 [$2 signed; –Aaaa1]. 456 leaves, pp. i-iv (half-title, blank, title printed in red and black, blank) v-xciv, 3-820. [=xciv, 818] With 6 engraved plates (of which 5 are folding) and 10 woodcuts within the text (of which 3 are culs-de-lampe).
Bound in contemporary stabbed vellum. On the spine, author and title gilt above a blue calf spine-label gilt with an inset fleur-de-lys gilt. All edges of the text-block speckled black-and-orange.
Splayed, particularly at the front. Peripheral bumps and scuffs, especially at the fore-corners. Front end-paper patched at the upper joint. Worming to the lower margin a2-H3 (particularly in h-k) and Vvv3-Ffff2 (particularly in Zzz1-Ffff2) with some repairs; sometimes touching a few letters. Worming to the upper margin of Xxx4-K3. Several quires tanned. Stub-tear to the folding engraved plate opposite p. 487. Ink-stamp of “l’abbé XAVIER DEIDIER” to the half-title and his ink ownership signature “Xavier Deidier” to the title-page flanking the printer’s device. Old ink price code (?) to the rear paste-down: “1200 Andria”.
Agostino Antonio Giorgi (sometimes the forenames switched; 1711–1797) was a Benedictine orientalist, said to have mastered eleven languages. A fierce opponent of the Jesuits — and a perfect counter-example to their supposed monopoly on scholarship — he took full advantage of the press of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (the holy congregation of the propagation of the faith, responsible for missionary activities), with its many sets of non-Latin type. In addition to its woodcut diagrams — many illustrative of Tibetan architecture and sacred figures — its large engraved plates illustrate Buddhist world-views using Tibetan iconography.
The first edition of the work, published 1759, was the first western work on Tibet and the first treatise on the Tibetan language. The present second edition is greatly augmented and revised, and in addition to the Latin text has characters in Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, Sanskrit, Chinese, Arabic and, of course, Tibetan. Although the Augustinians had no missionary presence in Tibet, Giorgi gained access to the reports of the Capuchins, who largely displaced the Jesuits over the course of the XVIIIc. A great deal of evangelical work had to be done to counter long-seated Buddhist beliefs in reincarnation and in Śūnyatā (sometimes rendered as “nihilism”) that directly contradicted the Christian narrative.
The Abbé Xavier Deidier (active 1860-1899) was a Missionary of the Sacred Heart (Missionnaire du Sacré-Coeur), the archconfraternity of which was founded in 1854 by Jules Chevalier. It is closely connected to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which was pronounced 8 December of that year. L’Abbé Deidier published tracts on Christian doctrine (most famously, Purgatory) and historical figures, but perhaps most germanely he wrote a précis of the Maori language in 1881, taking after Giorgi in his study of languages for the purpose of evangelization.
Cordier, Sinica 2928; Lust, Western Books on China 198.
Item #JLR0596
Price: $13,750