3 pp. + stampless address leaf. Text in French and Chinese.
To [Marie Ivanovitch] Brosset (a French scholar at the Russian Academy of Sciences), St. Petersburg, Russia. Not fully translated, but touches on many subjects, including Julien’s purchase from Leontiefski of the 4-volume manuscript of Hoei-Kiang-tchi; several of his own publications of dramatic literature “translated from Chinese”; the Asiatic Museum; his “curiosity” and eagerness to acquire more copies of Manchu translation from Chinese texts; the lithography in Baron Chaudoir’s book on Chinese coins and paper money; the “grand and precious” Catalogue of the Imperial Library; and a manuscript of the Swiss mathematician Euler acquired by the philologist Champollion, translator of the Rosetta Stone. After Remusat, French-Jewish scholar Julien (1799-1873) became the “most outstanding Sinologist in Europe” in the mid-18th century. Of his many translations of Taoist and Buddhist literature, and other writings – including an important early work on the cultivation of silkworms - only his 1856 book on Chinese Porcelain sometimes appears on the antiquarian book market. His autograph material is rare; there appears to be no letter of Julien’s held by any American institution.