FOURMONT (Etienne). Linguae sinarum mandarinicae hieroglyphi - Lot 78

FOURMONT (Etienne). Linguae sinarum mandarinicae hieroglyphicae grammatica duplex, latine & cum characteribus sinensium. ??Lutetiæ Parisiorum, chez Hippolyte-Louis Guerin, 1742. In-folio, [6] f., XL-IV-516-[4] pp., [2] f., pl, contemporary brown mottled calf, 5-ribbed spine, green morocco title-piece, double gilt fillet, box decorated with central gilt designs and angular fleurons, cold fillet on covers, marbled edges (light dampening at end of volume, a few very slightly and evenly browned ff., small wormhole in margin on last 60 f., a few light spots). First edition of this Mandarin grammar, which also contains a catalog of Louis XIV's Chinese library and a list of 110 missionary works. French orientalist Etienne Fourmont taught Hebrew and Arabic at the Collège de France. In 1711, he was introduced to a Chinese who introduced him to Mandarin; he became the first Frenchman to attempt to explain written Chinese and the system of 214 radicals. Fourmont had 80,000 Chinese characters engraved in Paris, which were used by de Guignes for his Dictionnaire chinois, français et latin of 1813. The edition is illustrated with 2 plates. (Lust 1011; Cordier, Sinica 1659-1660).