‎DE GUIGNES Joseph ( 1721 - 1800 ) - Antoine GAUBIL ( 1688 - 1759 ) - Joseph Henri de PRÉMARE (1666 - 1736) - CONFUCIUS :‎
‎"Le Chou-King, un des livres sacrés des Chinois, Qui renferme les Fondaments de leur ancienne Histoire , les Principes de leur Gouvernement & de leur Morale ; ouvrage recueilli par Confucius. Traduit & enrichi de Notes , par Feu Le P. GAUBIL , Missionnaire à la Chine. Revue & corrigé sur le Texte Chinois....par M. De Guignes [....]."‎

‎".: Paris, chez N.M. Tilliard, 1770, in-4°, 26 x 19,8 cm, (4)nn pp (title) + cxliv pp + 474 pp + (2)nn pp (privilege) + 4 engraved plates outside the text. Complete. Bound in contemporary full mottled calf, triple gilt fillets on both boards, marbled edges, marbled endpapers, richly decorated raised spine with red leather title label. The book has been expertly and hardly noticeable rebacked . Copy from the library of Vojta Naprstek with his small namestamp at some pages, with a printed 19th c. ex-libris tipped on to the first paste-down. A very fine and complete copy. This is the first published translation into an European language of the Book of Documents ( Shu-ching) and also the first of the Five Classics on Confucianism. The translation was derived form a manuscript sent from Peking by the jesuit father Antoine Gaubil ( Gaillac 1688 - Peking 1759 ) and which was collated by Joseph de Guignes against another transcript in the Royal Library. It contains also a treatise on the early history of the Chinese by father Joseph de Prémare ;''Discours préliminaire''. (nearly 100 pp). (See Lust item 727 ; De Backer-Sommervogel Vol. III , col.1259.)."‎

Reference : 44578

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