OZERAY (Michel Jean-François). Recherches sur Buddou ou Boud - Lot 293

OZERAY (Michel Jean-François). Recherches sur Buddou ou Bouddou, Instituteur religieux de l'Asie orientale. Paris, Brunot-Labbe, 1817. In-8, fawn half-basane, smooth spine decorated with green title page, red speckled edges (contemporary binding). First edition of the first Western book on Buddhism. The work was published three years after the creation in Europe (in Paris, at the Collège de France) of the first Chair of Sinology and the first Chair of Indian Studies. Here, Ozeray (1764-1859), a historian born in Chartres and who died in Bouillon, delivers the first serious study of Buddha: "It is an indisputable fact that Buddha is a famous character [...], a distinguished philosopher, a wise man born for the happiness of his fellow men and the good of humanity. A deified man, he was the first religious legislator in East Asia. In this book, the author draws up an overview of the religion he was the first to call Buddhism; indeed, it was in this book that the term was used for the very first time: The moral philosopher will fix his eyes on the endemic religions of these parts of our hemisphere, on Buddhism in particular, as being the most widespread of all these cults, since it extends from the Indus to Japan; the most singular, since, alone, it has triumphed over ancient beliefs in the vastest and most populous regions of the East (p. XXXV). A very fine copy of this key text in the development of Buddhist knowledge in the West. Wet stamp on the title page and library storage label. (Caillet, n°8243; Dorbon, n°3437; Urs App, The First Western Book on Budhism and Buddha, 2017; Frédéric Lenoir, La Rencontre du bouddhisme et de l'Occident, 2014; Roger-Pol Droit, Le Culte du néant, 1997).