View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Enlighten The Bayer Collection A preliminary catalogue of the manuscripts and books of Professor Theophilus Siegfried Bayer, acquired and augmented by the Reverend Dr Heinrich Walther Gerdes, now preserved in the Hunterian Library of the University of Glasgow David Weston University of Glasgow 2018 1 Version 1.0 Published on the tercentenary of Dr William Hunter’s birth 2 1. Introduction 7 2. Chronology 13 3. Catalogue of manuscripts 17 1. Mss Hunter 2. Mss Hunter B/A-E 95 4. Palm-Leaf books and other pothi format books (PL) 185 5. Chinese and Manchu books (HC) 196 6. European printed works (PB) 229 7. Name Index 239 3 Acknowledgements In compiling this catalogue I have benefitted from the generous support and assistance of the following individuals whose insights and contributions, where relevant, are noted throughout the text: Prof. Kirill Alekseev, Peter Asplin, Prof. Charles Bawden†, Prof. Zheng Cheng, Dr Yupin Chung, Michelle Craig, Kenneth Gardner†, Prof. Walther Heissig†, Sarah Hepworth, Prof. Florence Hsia, Yuen Kwan Humble, Craig Jamieson, Dr Betty Knott- Sharpe, John Okell, Dr Stephen McDowall, Dr David McOmish, Charles Manson, Fiona Neale, Prof. Nicholas Pearce, Tong Shenxiao. In addition, I owe a special debt of gratitude to two people in particular. The former is Professor Knud Lundbaek, (1912-1995) who, many years ago now, suggested that I undertake a catalogue of all the Bayeriana at Glasgow. The second is Jack Baldwin, former Keeper of Special Collections, who appointed me to his department back in 1979, and whose constant encouragement and critical judgement have been invaluable. David Weston Former Assistant Director and Keeper of Special Collections University of Glasgow Library [email protected] 4 Abbreviated citations: H203 = Brock, Helen, Dr William Hunter's papers and drawings in the Hunterian Collection of Glasgow University Library: a handlist, Cambridge, 1990, p.27, H.203 ‘A catalogue of a curious collection of rare books, in the Chinese and other Indian languages; collected by the late learned Theoph. Siegfr. Bayer, Professor of St Petersburgh, and now in the possession of Mrs Gerdes, widow of the late learned Dr Gerdes’. Lundbaek = Knud Lundbaek, T S Bayer (1694-1738): pioneer sinologist, London, 1986 Müller = G.F. Müller, Materialy dlya istorii Imperatorskoi Akademii nauk (in German) T.6, Sanktpeterburg, 1890 Simon = Correspondance de Pékin, 1722-1759, by Antoine Gaubil; publiée par Renée Simon; préface par Paul Demiéville appendices par Joseph Dehergne, Geneva, 1970 Young & Aitken = John Young & P.H. Aitken, A catalogue of the manuscripts in the Library of the Hunterian Museum in the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1908 Transliteration: Except where otherwise indicated, Library of Congress transliteration tables for languages have been followed. https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html (retrieved 16.11.2017) 5 BLANK 6 1. Introduction This is the first attempt to provide the scholarly world with a complete, detailed catalogue of all the material, preserved in the Hunterian Library of the University of Glasgow, which formerly belonged to Professor Theophilus Siegfried Bayer and, subsequently, Dr Heinrich Walther Gerdes. As such it provides not only greatly enhanced descriptions of items already known from the work of Young and Aitken,1and Henri Cordier,2 but also many more items discovered, and progressively described from the 1980s until now. Born in Königsberg, the capital of the Duchy of Prussia, in 1694, Theophilus Siegfried Bayer at an early age developed an interest in oriental languages, which he later pursued in an intensive Studiensreise (1716-17) which included Berlin, Halle, Leipzig and Wittenberg.3 During this he encountered, amongst others, the Prussian Royal Librarian Mathurin Veyssière de la Croze4, the Pietist August Hermann Francke, and the Semitic philologist Johann Heinrich Michaelis. While at Halle he also met the Syrian born scholar, Solomon Negri5 (1665-1727), through whom he deepened his knowledge of Arabic and Syriac.6 Negri had earlier, in 1701, taught at the Halle Collegium Orientale. Bayer returned to his native city in late 1717, eventually becoming Pro-rector at the Cathedral School in 1721. However, events took an unexpected turn when, in 1725, on the advice of his friend Christian Goldbach, he accepted an invitation to go to St Petersburg to assume the post of Professor of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the recently founded Academy of Sciences.7 In addition to performing his regular duties at the Academy, Bayer intensified his study of the Chinese language, which had already claimed his intellectual curiosity. Building on existing work by Andreas Müller, Christian Mentzel, the Jesuit Martino Martini, and others, which he had studied while still in Königsberg, he felt able to publish his major book, the Museum Sinicum (St Petersburg, 1730). By 1733 Bayer and several others had requested permission to leave, such were the unsatisfactory conditions obtaining in the Academy, but he was persuaded to remain until 1737 1 John Young & P.H. Aitken, A catalogue of the manuscripts in the Library of the Hunterian Museum in the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1908. 2 Henri Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 1878-1895; 2nd éd. 1904-8. 3 Bayer is today largely known through the work of Knud Lundbaek, who published the standard monograph, T S Bayer (1694-1738): pioneer sinologist in 1986. The only previous extended study on his life and work was the doctoral dissertation published in 1915 by Franz Babinger, Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer (1694-1738): ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der morgenländischen Studien im 18. Jahrhundert, Munich, 1915. 4 Born Nantes 4 December 1661, died Berlin 21 May 1739. 1676 travelled to the Antilles. 1677 entered the Benedictine Congregation of St Maur in Saumur. Studied theology in Marmoutier and Le Mans. From 1682 continued his studies as member of the Abbey of St Germain-des-Prés in Paris. 1696 flight to Basel, conversion to Reformed confession. 1697 appointed as Librarian to Elector Friedrich III in Berlin. In parallel from 1704 he taught at the French Gymnasium (from 1724 he succeeded to the professorship of philosophy) and from 1717 tutor to the children of King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia. 1718 Head of the Cabinet of antiquities and medals in the Berlin Castle. 1701 member of the Academy of Sciences. He compiled four dictionaries (Armenian, Coptic, Slavonic, and Syriac). Martin Cf. Malsow, Die drei Ringe, Tübingen, 2001, 5 For Negri see: David Weston, ‘Negri, Solomon (bap. 1665, d. 1727)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, (May 2013) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/105274]. 6 Cf. Museum Sinicum, Preface p.85. 7 Müller, pp.44-5 7 when he resigned and decided to return to Königsberg. In a letter to Dominique Parrenin in 1735 [B13], Bayer mentions that he is happily married, with four daughters (three born in Königsberg and one in St Petersburg). In fact he had eight children by his wife Anna Dorothea Bollner, only four of whom survived infancy. Prior to his planned departure from St Petersburg he sent most of his papers and Chinese books ahead, but before he and his family could join them in January 1738 he had fallen ill with a fever, which took his life on 10th February at the age of forty- four. Finding herself in unforeseen financial hardship, Bayer’s widow was obliged to sell off that part of her husband’s books and papers which had already reached Königsberg, a considerable loss to the Academy, to whom, however, she handed over those materials, mainly correspondence, remaining in St Petersburg. What precisely was contained in the collection which reached Königsberg cannot be determined with any certainly – some items may have been sold off there. For instance, there are very few European printed works amongst the material which was acquired by Heinrich Walther Gerdes,8 a Lutheran pastor resident in London, and which eventually found its way to Glasgow. It is also very likely that amongst the books in the Bayer Collection there are items which should properly have been placed in the Library of the Imperial Academy, but which, due to Bayer’s unique and intense interest in Chinese, ended up inadvertently being shipped out to Königsberg in 1737 along with his other papers. The collection as described herein, nonetheless, contains much of interest for the history of sinological and other oriental studies. We know that Bayer already knew of Gerdes during his lifetime and corresponded with him, from a reference in a letter sent from Bayer to Bishop Erik Benzelius dated 5th October, 1732: ‘Scripsi hodie D. Gerdes qui Londini Eccles. Evangelicae Presb. est de hoc meo desiderio …’9 but as yet none of these letters which travelled between London and St Petersburg has been located. We also know that Bayer helped Gerdes with a Chinese translation of the Lord’s Prayer for a multi-lingual collection he was 8 Gerdes was born on the 24th August, 1690 at Hamburg, where he later studied theology. By 1716 he had become preacher at the Schlosskirche in Darmstadt, and, the following year transferred to the position of Court Librarian there. He apparently held this post until 1722. In a letter to the learned Swedish Bishop, Erik Benzelius, dated Stockholm 3rd June 1721 he speaks of a journey he is planning to Holland for the summer and autumn, followed by England in winter and finally, the following summer, in France. He also offers to place himself at the disposal of Benzelius, presumably to purchase books, or carry out research. In 1723 he was inducted as pastor of the Hamburg church (also known as the Swedish Church) in London, which was situated on the north side of Trinity Lane.