Исторія Тибета и Хухунора съ 2282 года до Р. Х. до 1227 года по Р. Х. ... Переведена съ Китайскаго Монахомъ І. Бичуринымъ. / Istoriia Tibeta... [= History of Tibet and Khukhunor . . . translated from the Chinese]

St. Petersburg: Academy of Sciences, 1833. First edition, 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xxxi, [1], 258; ix (i.e., x), 259, [1]; engraved title page in each volume, folding engraved map hand-colored in outline (very short tear entering from the guard); contemporary half calf over marbled boards; the binding is rubbed, but sound, and internally clean. Nikita Yakovlevich Bichurin (1777-1853) was an outstanding Russian sinologist and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Better known under his archimandrite monastic name Hyacinth, or Iakinf, he was one of the founding fathers of Russian Sinology. A monk from 1800, Iakinf was appointed in 1807 as (truncated) the superior of the Orthodox mission in Peking (Beijing) and spent 14 years there. He translated the Orthodox liturgy and compiled a catechism in Chinese. More scholar than monk by nature, Iakinf immersed himself in Chinese studies. He devoted most of his time to compiling dictionaries, translating Chinese classics, and writing original works on Chinese history, geography, and religion. Upon his return to Russia, he lived in the Valaam monastery and in the St. Petersburg Alexander Nevsky Lavra (from 1826), where he wrote books on sinology that were translated into many languages. Cordier Sinica 2880-2881; Lust 200: "History of Tibet and the Kokonor region from B.C. 2282 to A.D. 1227." The book is rare. We find copies (under different spellings) at Yale, N.Y. Public, The Field Museum, University of Washington, Oxford, SOAS Library, and the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. The Erfurt and Bayerische Staatsbibliothek libraries apparently hold single volumes only. (Inventory #: 68090)