THE FIRST WESTERN BOOK ON BUDDHISM

OZERAY, MICHEL-JEAN-FRANCOIS.

Recherches sur Buddou ou Bouddou instituteur religieux de l'Asie orientale; Précédées de considérations générales sur les premiers hommages rendus au Créteur; sur la corruption de la religion, l'établissement des cultes du solieil, de la lune, des planètes, du ciel, de la terre, des montagnes, des eaux, des forêts, des hommes et des animaux.

Paris, Brunot-Labbe, 1817.

8vo. Completely uncut in later, simple paper-wrappers. Light dusting to first and last leaf and only light occasional brownspotting. Overall a magnificent anf fresh copy, on good paper, and completely uncut.

Scarce first edition of the first Western book about Buddhism and Buddha.

"Although the Western encounter with Asia's largest religion may be the vastest and most consequential spiritual encounter in human history, its protagonists and historical development are still barely known. Thus it comes as no surprise that even specialists have hitherto failed to appreciate the earliest Western book about Buddhism: Michel-Jean-François Ozeray's Recherches "Sur Buddou ou Bouddou, Instituteur religieux de l'Asie Orientale" (Paris, 1817)." (from the review of Urs App's edition of the work from 1917).

To commemorate Ozeray's groundbreaking work, an edition of it was published for its 200th anniversary, in 2017, with French-English parallel-text (the translation by Urs App). It is this edition that has made the book famous and re-introduced it as the pioneering classic that it is. "In his 73-page introduction App presents and analyzes Ozeray's view of Buddhism and its founder. Tracing the author's main sources, he explains why his book deserves to be recognized as a pioneering contribution to Western knowledge about Buddhism and to global-scale comparative religion. Published just before the onset of academic research on Buddhism in Europe, Ozeray's work relied not on Christian missionary literature or romantic speculation but rather on figurative representations and reports furnished by ambassadors, travelers, and long-time residents in Asian countries. Due to its focus on living Buddhism as practised in numerous Asian countries, Ozeray's pioneering study is-in spite of its inevitable flaws-in many respects more congruent with modern field work than the majority of popular books on Buddhism that bend the spiritualism and esotericism shelves in today's bookstores."

Order-nr.: 57179