Item #3703905 India Orientalis Christiana continens fundationes ecclesiarum, seriem episcoporum, missiones, schismata, persecutiones, reges, viros illustres [and two other works]. PAULINUS OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW, also called Johann Philipp Wesdin or Werdin.
India Orientalis Christiana continens fundationes ecclesiarum, seriem episcoporum, missiones, schismata, persecutiones, reges, viros illustres [and two other works].
India Orientalis Christiana continens fundationes ecclesiarum, seriem episcoporum, missiones, schismata, persecutiones, reges, viros illustres [and two other works].
India Orientalis Christiana continens fundationes ecclesiarum, seriem episcoporum, missiones, schismata, persecutiones, reges, viros illustres [and two other works].

India Orientalis Christiana continens fundationes ecclesiarum…
India Orientalis Christiana continens fundationes ecclesiarum, seriem episcoporum, missiones, schismata, persecutiones, reges, viros illustres [and two other works].

Rome: Typis Salomonianis, 1794.

Three works bound together, quarto, the first main work with folding map, 2 plates and an engraved portrait vignette, with two shorter pamphlets (24 & 26 pp.); an attractive copy in contemporary patterned vellum boards, spine banded, red morocco spine label faded.

Eighteenth-century India by a noted orientalist

Three works by Paulinus, including his important India Orientalis Christiana, a study of and introduction to the Carmelite missions in India in the late eighteenth century, in a particularly attractive contemporary binding. The work is illustrated with two plates and a fine map of India, as well as a smaller vignette portrait of Paulinus himself. Paulinus of St Bartholomew (1748-1806), also known as Johann Philipp Werdin or Wesdin, was a missionary and orientalist. A member of the Carmelite Order, in 1774 he was sent to India (Malabar) where he was appointed vicar general of his order. In 1789 he was recalled to Rome in order to report on the mission, and given the task of preparing books for the use of missionaries.

Three works by Paulinus, including his important India Orientalis Christiana, a study of and introduction to the Carmelite missions in India in the late eighteenth century, in a particularly attractive contemporary binding. The work is illustrated with two plates and a fine map of India, as well as a smaller vignette portrait of Paulinus himself. Paulinus of St Bartholomew (1748-1806), also known as Johann Philipp Werdin or Wesdin, was a missionary and orientalist. A member of the Carmelite Order, in 1774 he was sent to India (Malabar) where he was appointed vicar general of his order. In 1789 he was recalled to Rome in order to report on the mission, and given the task of preparing books for the use of missionaries.

One of the first Orientalists to note and work on the close relationship between Indian and European languages, Paulinus was the author of many learned studies on the east, and is best known for having published the first Sanskrit grammar. As an antiquarian who worked from original sources, he was fortunate to have the patronage of Cardinal Stefano Borgia (1731-1804; a good Borgia) whom he served as private secretary and who financed many of his publications. Both men served long periods on the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, a body preoccupied with exotic languages insofar as they impacted on spreading the christian gospels but also in understanding exotic theologies. In this context the Propaganda Fide was a central recipient of missionary collecting in the field which gave Paulinus exceptional advantages which enabled him to undertake extensive linguistic studies.

After Borgia's death his remarkable library and museum were gradually distributed, with the important biblical manuscripts mostly being added to the Vatican libraries after the secular materials had chiefly made their way to the national library of Naples.

The two rare pamphlets bound in here are both concerned with Borgia's museum: Scitismo Sviluppato… del Museo Borgiano (Rome, c. 1793) and Lettera… del Museo Borgiano (Rome, same period), both written in Italian (not Latin) and both discussing the Museo Borgiano. Borgia was particularly expert on Coptic relics, but here Paulinus discusses early Brahmanic and other Indian manuscripts in his collection.

All of these works are rare, although, as often, the pamphlets are the scarcer. Worldcat lists some 10 copies of the India Orientalis Christiana, 2 copies of the Scitismo, and only 1 of the Lettera.

Streit, VI, 683.

Price (AUD): $4,250.00

US$2,791.47   Other currencies

Ref: #3703905