L'abbé de Villefroy, Notices Des Manuscrits Arméniens De la - Lot 2

L'abbé de Villefroy, Notices Des Manuscrits Arméniens De la Biblioth: du Roy aportés De Constantinople en L'année 1730 Paris, 1730-35 French manuscript on watermarked paper, XLIX pp. (preliminary discourse) including 1 fold-out (alphabet), unnumbered title page, 353 pp. plus 3 annotated pages and index cards pasted on the back cover. 28 to 31 lines per page, text in cursive brown ink. Preface on title page written by Abbé Bignon, dated 10 May 1735. On the flyleaf, two old labels: "olim EX-BIBL. coll. paris s.j. sanctae genovefae (Formerly from the library of the Jesuit College of Paris Sainte-Geneviève)" "sigill. praep. prov. franc. i.h.s.". (Seal of the Superior of the Province of France)" and two pencil annotations, top "A.33" and bottom "Bb.5". Scratched handwritten inscription on title page. Bound in period green half-velin, spine inscribed in ink "Inv.(?) les Manuscrits Arméniens de la Bibliothèque du Roi" and two ribs: "508" and "8(ou?)768". (Wear, erasures, corrections, additions, stains, very damaged binding). 36 x 24 cm Provenance: Ecole Sainte Geneviève B.D.J. (Bibliothèque des Jésuites), Paris; Le R.P. François Graffin, librarian of the Bibliothèque des Jésuites de la rue de Sèvres; offered in 1978. Quoted in: Raymond H. Kévorkian, Armèn Ter-Stépanian, with the assistance of Bernard Outtier and Guévorg Ter-Vardanian, Manuscrits arméniens de la Bibliothèque Nationale. Catalog, Bibliothèque nationale de France/Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris, 1998, p. xvi, note 25. This precious unpublished manuscript of great historical interest, composed by Abbé Guillaume de Villefroy (1690-1777) between 1730 and 1735, includes an introduction to the history of Armenian literature, followed by very detailed descriptions of the 134 Armenian manuscripts brought back from the Ottoman Empire in 1730 by a scientific mission for the Royal Library. Villefroy delivered the present manuscript on April 27, 1735 to Abbé Jean-Paul Bignon (1662-1743), the King's Librarian. The introduction and lengthy notes reflect the author's very personal appreciation of the subject, and have remained unpublished to this day (Kévorkian et al., ibid ., pp. xv-xvi and note 25). The scientific mission commissioned in 1728 by King Louis XV to bring back Greek and Oriental manuscripts from Constantinople was led by Abbé François Sevin. The envoys brought back over 600 manuscripts in various languages. They tried unsuccessfully to buy Armenian manuscripts in the Ottoman capital, eventually bringing them mainly from the Crimea. The abbot and orientalist Guillaume de Villefroy is best known for providing the brief notes on Armenian manuscripts published by Montfaucon in 1739 in the "Bibliotheca bibliothecarum". In 1744, he founded a society known as the "Capucins Hebraïsants", and in 1752 was appointed Professor of Hebrew at the Collège de France.