Training Jesuits in Chinese grammar

Prémare, [Joseph de]. Notitia Linguae Sinicae.

€ 6.500,00

First edition. An important Chinese grammar by the Jesuit missionary in China, Joseph Henri de Prémare (1666-1736), and a very early Malacca printing. Prémare served in Guangxi in the early 18th century, having to leave for Guangzhou when the Emperor banned Christianity over the Chinese Rites controversy in 1724. He later went to Macau, where he died. The present work, his principal scholarly effort, explains the rules and usage of the Chinese vernacular (siao shue) as well as the style of the written, literary language (wen tschang). Although composed in the early 18th century, it remained unpublished until this edition, when its importance was recognized; merely extracts had been published by Fourmont in his 1742 Chinese grammar "Linguae Sinarum Mandarinicae", based on Prémare, who had sent him his notes, as well as on Francisco Varo's (1627-87) grammar from 1703. Premare's importance and contributions to Western knowledge of China may be observed in Du Halde's "Description de la Chine" (1735), "Lettres edifiantes et curieuses de Chine", and the Chou-King.

Title and dedication slightly foxed, otherwise an excellent, wide-margined copy showing only light browning. Very rare in the trade; no copy in auction records. The present copy includes the dedication leaf missing from many institutional copies.