Grammatik der Tibetischen Sprache,

verfasst von I. J. Schmidt. St. Petersburg : Gräff ; Leipzig, Voss, 1839. Quarto (280 x 210 mm), contemporary red calf, richly gilt, spine with gilt lettering and decoration, gilt dentelles; all edges gilt; blue endpapers; pp. xv, [1 blank], 318, [2 Errata]; text in German (roman) and Tibetan script; scattered light foxing, a fine example in a beautiful binding of the period.

First edition of Schmidt’s Tibetan grammar, which was not only the first grammar of the language in German, but one of the first Tibetan grammars in any European language. Isaac Schmidt (1779-1847) was an Amsterdam-born Moravian missionary and Orientalist specialising in Tibetan and Mongolian. As a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences – the present work is dedicated to its president, Uwarow – he spent much of his career in St. Petersburg, devoting his later years to Bible translations in Kalmyk and Mongolian.

Cordier, BS, 2932; Lust, 254