1797 Darstellung der Brahmanisch-Indischen Götterlehre, Religionsgebräuche und bürgerlichen Verfassung

Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo – Darstellung der Brahmanisch-Indischen Götterlehre, Religionsgebräuche und bürgerlichen Verfassung (Presentation of the Brahmanical-Indian Doctrine of the Gods, Religious Customs and Civil Constitution). Gotha: Carl Wilhelm Ettinger, 1797. 8vo (21.5 × 16.5 cm). viii + 262 [1] pp. With 30 engraved copper plates (some folding). German adaptation of the Latin work by the Carmelite missionary Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo (Filippo Wesdin), one of the earliest European accounts of Hindu religion and iconography based on firsthand experience in India. Engravings illustrate Hindu deities, ritual objects, costumes, coins, temples, and cosmology, including a large folding plate of the “Tribunal des Yamas.” Contemporary mottled calf boards with later cloth spine; rubbed and worn but sound. A solid, complete copy of an important early ethnographic and orientalist study, notable for its suite of plates. Inv. Ho10