unda].
Petropoli: Typis
Iohannis Caroli Schnoor,
mdcclxxxvi,
mdcclxxxix
. [1786, 1789.]
P341 .P2
First Edition. 2 vol. 4to. 210 and 248 leaves, on 11 leaves at the end, with half-title, are the numberals of 222 languages, text
in the
Cyrillic alphabet, preface in long lines signed П. С. Палласъ[.] The
Latin title as above is on the recto of the second leaf; facing this, on the verso of the first leaf, is the
Russian title:
Сравнительные Словари вс(ть)хъ Языковъ и Нар(ть)чій, собранные десницею Всевысочайшей Особы. Отд(ть)леніе перьвое, содержащее
въ себ(ть) Европейскіе и Азіатскіе Языки. Часть Перьвая. [-Часть Вторая].
Въ Санктпетербург(ть), Печатано въ Типографіи у Шнора
1787 года,
1789 года.
The copy in the Library of Congress has the
Russian title to both volumes, but is without the
Latin title to Vol. I. According to the New York Public Library card for this
book Vol. I should have the preface in
Latin as well as in
Russian, and should have, preceding the title-page, 9 leaves with
Rapport fait à l’Académie celtique, sur l’ouvrage russe de M. le professeur Pallas, intitulé Vocabulaires comparés des langues de toute la terre; par M. le sénateur Volney.
Jefferson’s interest in this work was in connection with his Indian vocabularies. In sending these to Peter Stephen Duponceau,
with a letter dated from Monticello December 30, 1817, he wrote: “
. . . what Professor Adelung mentions of the Empress Catherine’s having procured many vocabularies of our Indians, is correct.
she applied to M. de la Fayette, who, thro’ the aid of Gen
l. Washington, obtained several: but I never learnt of what particular tribes. the great works of Pallas being rare I will
mention that there are two editions of it the one in 2. vols, the other in 4. vols 4
to. in the library I ceded to Congress, which may be consulted . . .
”
This book was sent to Jefferson by Levett Harris, the United States Consul at St. Petersburg. For the correspondence between
Harris and Jefferson concerning the work, see the next entry.
Peter Simon Pallas, 1741-1811, German naturalist and traveller, was elected a member of the Royal Society at the age of twenty-three. In 1768
the Empress Catherine II of Russia appointed him to the professorship of natural history in the Imperial Academy of Science
at St. Petersburg and in the same year he was appointed naturalist to a scientific expedition through Russia and Siberia to
observe the transit of Venus in 1769. This resulted in a number of books by him of which the most famous was his
Reisen durch verschiedene Provinzen des rüssischen Reichs
.
The
Linguarum Totius Orbis Vocabularia Comparativa was compiled at the request of the Empress Catherine II, and each volume contains 130 words in 200 languages, all printed
in the Cyrillic alphabet. For the second edition, which contains words in the American Indian languages, see the next entry.
[4736]
4
Vocabulaires comparés des langues de toute la terre par Pallas.
4. v.
4
to.
1815 Catalogue, page 168, no. 102, as above.
[PALLAS,
Peter Simon.]
Сравнительный Словарь вс(ть)хь Языковъ и Нар(ть)чій, по азбучному порядку расположенный. Часть первая А-Д. [-Часть четвертая
С-Ф.]
Въ
Санктпетербург(ть),
1790,
1791.
P361 .I2
Second Edition. 4 vol. 4
to 230, 254, 264 and 310 leaves including first blanks, printed throughout in the
Cyrillic alphabet.
Graesse IV, 214.
Brokgaus-Efron, Entsiklopediia Slovar′, XLI, page 673.
Pilling,
Bibliography of the Algonquinian Languages, page 541.
In a letter to Levett Harris, dated from Washington April 18, 1806, Jefferson requested him to send a copy of this work: “
. . . At a very early period of my life, contemplating the history of the aboriginal inhabitants of America, I was led to
believe that if there had ever been a relation between them & the men of colour in Asia, traces of it would be found in their
several languages. I have therefore availed myself of every opportunity which has offered to obtain vocabularies of such tribes
as have been within my reach, corresponding to a list then
”
