1853.] Literary Intelligence. 403 



Literary Intelligence. 



In a preface to the Catalogue des Manuscrits etXylographes Orien- 

 taux contained in the Imperial Public Library of St. Petersburgh, a 

 copy of which was lately presented to our Society by the Directors of 

 that Institution, the compiler has sketched the progress of the col- 

 lection, the foundation of which was laid after the capture of "War- 

 saw by the Russians, in 1795. The celebrated Zalusky Library 

 was then carried to St. Petersburgh, and to this nucleus was 

 added, in 1805, a number of MSS. collected by Doubrowsky, an em- 

 ploye in the foreign office who had made the most, apparently, of the 

 opportunities which fell in his way during the revolutionary wars, 

 and had gathered a " riche moisson" which he subsequently presented 

 to the Emperor Alexander. In 1813, however, the Oriental Depart- 

 ment of this Institution could only produce 183 MSS. The bulk of the 

 present collection is formed of the spoils of Turkey and Persia. The 

 Ardebil Mosque containing the Ssefy Mausoleum and mentioned by 

 Morier, furnished 166 vols, to the Russian General Suchtelen in 1828, 

 and the Ahmed Mosque of Akhaltisk, containing 148 Turkish and 

 Arabic works, gave up its Library to Paskevitch in 1829. 



The present collection consists of the following MSS. . 



Arabic, 247 Georgian, 15 Pali, 4 



Persian, 255 Mantchoo, 35 Goojeratee, 1 



Turkish, 100 Chinese, 151 Hindee, 1 



Hebrew, 6 Mongol, 5 Bengali, 1 



Ethiopian, 9 Calmuc, 1 Malayalam, 1 



Syriac, 5 Tibetan, 10 Tamul, 10 



Coptic, 8 Japanese, 14 Siamese, 1 



Armenian, 11 Sanskrit, 8 Javanese, 1 



As was to be expected its riches consist mainly in Arabic, Persian 

 and Turkish works. The Chinese department too obtained some 

 valuable acquisitions from Kamensky when at the head of the Rus- 

 sian Mission which visited Pekin in 1823. In Indian MSS. the 

 Library is lamentably poor, the solitary specimen being in one or 

 two cases the publication of some Mission Press. 



The Catalogue is in Prench, and of a raisonne character. The 

 typography is most creditable to the Press maintained at the Im- 

 perial Academy of Sciences. Not more than 300 copies have been 



