FOURMONT, Etienne (1683-1745). Linguae Sinarum Mandarinicae hieroglyphicae grammatica duplex, Latine, & cum characteribus Sinensium. Paris: Guerin, Rollin and Bullot, 1742.
2° (335 x 230mm). Half title, 2 folding tables of Chinese characters, xylographic Chinese characters in text including 4 large on half-title verso, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces. (Occasional light spotting.) Contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments and titled on leather label (extremities rubbed, spine ends chipped, front joint cracked, some scuffing).
FIRST EDITION of this early grammar of Mandarin, also containing a catalogue of Louis XIV's Chinese library, and a list of 110 works by missionaries. As a student, the French orientalist Etienne Fourmont learnt Greek, Hebrew and Arabic, and became professor of Arabic and Hebrew at the Collège de France. In 1711 Fourmont was introduced to a Chinese man who instructed him in Mandarin; he became the first Frenchman to attempt an explanation of written Chinese and the system of 214 radicals. Fourmont had 80,000 Chinese characters engraved in Paris, and they were re-used by de Guignes for his Dictionnaire chinois, français et latin of 1813. Lust 1011; Cordier, Sinica 1659-1660.
FOURMONT, Etienne (1683-1745). Linguae Sinarum Mandarinicae hieroglyphicae grammatica duplex, Latine, & cum characteribus Sinensium. Paris: Guerin, Rollin and Bullot, 1742.
2° (335 x 230mm). Half title, 2 folding tables of Chinese characters, xylographic Chinese characters in text including 4 large on half-title verso, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces. (Occasional light spotting.) Contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments and titled on leather label (extremities rubbed, spine ends chipped, front joint cracked, some scuffing).
FIRST EDITION of this early grammar of Mandarin, also containing a catalogue of Louis XIV's Chinese library, and a list of 110 works by missionaries. As a student, the French orientalist Etienne Fourmont learnt Greek, Hebrew and Arabic, and became professor of Arabic and Hebrew at the Collège de France. In 1711 Fourmont was introduced to a Chinese man who instructed him in Mandarin; he became the first Frenchman to attempt an explanation of written Chinese and the system of 214 radicals. Fourmont had 80,000 Chinese characters engraved in Paris, and they were re-used by de Guignes for his Dictionnaire chinois, français et latin of 1813. Lust 1011; Cordier, Sinica 1659-1660.
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