1842.] General Meeting of the Asiatic Society of Paris. 415 



to publish the monuments of art of the Asiatic nations, the other in 

 London, under the name of " Society for the Publication of Oriental 

 Texts." It is now constituted and has commenced its labours. It forms 

 the necessary complement to the Committee of Translations, and we 

 sincerely hope, that it may be favoured with the support of the learned 

 men and of public institutions ; which is so necessary for the execution 

 of its great and difficult enterprise, as there is no chance of its becoming 

 popular. It cannot be too often repeated, that the publication of the 

 most important Oriental manuscripts is the greatest and most urgent 

 want of our studies. Only when the critical labours of the learned have 

 passed over the master-pieces of every literature ; when the press has 

 facilitated the material use of books, and obviated the immense loss of 

 time, occasioned by the reading of manuscripts ; when it has diffused to 

 all corners of Europe the materials which must now be searched for 

 in some collections of manuscripts, only then can European intelligence 

 really penetrate the East, and by disengaging the historic truth from 

 the thick layer of fables and contradictions involving it, reconstrue the 

 history of mankind. The accomplishment of this object is indeed far 

 distant, yet the way to attain it is distinctly pointed out, and every year 

 we advance a step to it. 



The number of catalogues of oriental manuscripts in the European 

 libraries which are being published or prepared, may be considered as a 

 very good idea for this purpose. The Bodleian Library at Oxford has 

 a short time since finished the publication of its catalogue, fifty years 

 ago commenced by Uri, and finished by Nicoll ; it has been published by 

 Purey. 2 It is a great and beautiful enterprise, worthy of this celebrated 

 library. Mr. Prinsep, a short time before his death, edited in two 

 volumes, the Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the Asiatic Library of 

 Calcutta. Mr. Fleischer, to whom we already owe the Catalogue of the 

 Oriental Manuscripts at Dresden, has also published that of the Library at 

 Leipzig. 3 Mr. Brooset has edited in Petersburg the Catalogue of the 

 Armenian Library of Edchmiadzin. 4 For a long time it was the regret of 



2. Bibliothecae Bodlianae Codicum Manuscriptorum Catalogin, confecit Nicoll 

 edidit Purey, in fol. Oxford, 1835. 



3. Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Senatorial Lipsionsis, ed. 

 Neumann. Codices Orientalium Linguarum Descripserunt; Fleischer et Delitih, 

 1838, in 4to. 



4. Catalogue de la Bibliotheque d' Edchmiadzin, publie par M. Brooset. Saint 

 Petersbourg, 1810, 121 pages. 



