[INDOLOGY] help with Cabaton catalogue of Paris BnF

Tue Dec 30 13:23:02 UTC 2025

Dear Dominik,

See also this:
https://tst-project.github.io/collections/bnf/burnouf/

With very best wishes.

-----------------------------------------

*Emmanuel FRANCIS-GONZE*

Chargé de recherche CNRS

Centre d’études sud-asiatiques et himalayennes

2 Cours des Humanités

93322 AUBERVILLIERS

bureau A222

✆ 01 88 12 01 82

Online CV HAL <https://cv.archives-ouvertes.fr/emmanuel-francis>

Le mar. 30 déc. 2025 à 10:25, Jonathan Silk via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> a écrit :

> Dear Jérôme,
>
> Thank you for the details about the BnF collection.
> And, congratulations on your book!
> One question: when I follow the link it asks me to pay €11.99 for the PDF.
> I would happily pay for a paper copy, but when I see OpenAccess I rather
> expect gratis download, but I seem indeed somewhere to have misunderstood...
>
> Avec mes meilleurs vœux pour une belle année nouvelle,
>
> Jonathan
>
> On Tue, Dec 30, 2025 at 9:33 AM Jérôme Petit via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Dear Dominik,
>>
>> Curator of the South-Asian manuscript collection in Paris, I am answering
>> your questions below:
>>
>>
>>    1. What is the meaning of the numbering?  The first number is just a
>>    serial number in Cabaton's catalogue, but the Burnouf materials have a
>>    second number in parentheses.  What's that number? It's also
>>    sequential.
>>
>> The first numbering is the BnF shelfmark, like “Sanscrit 1046”. The
>> second one in brackets is the numbering given during the sale of the
>> Burnouf collection (see below). Cabaton’s catalogues have been XML-encoded
>> and published on the “BnF Archives et manuscrits” website.
>>
>> https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc97327n
>>
>>
>>
>>    2. The footnote on p. 181 refers to a published list of materials in
>>    a fire (I can't find that publication).  Was Burnouf's collection
>>    destroyed?  Are we looking at a list of books and manuscripts that *used*
>>    to exist?  Or were merely singed (like Zaehner's books in Oxford)?
>>
>> Some printed books of the Burnouf collection had been bought by the
>> National Library during the 1854 sale. They form the shelfmarks “Sanscrit
>> 1046 to 1102”. You will find below the link to the digital version of this
>> publication. The numbering in brackets in Cabaton refers to the numbering
>> in this catalogue.
>>
>> https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5804580x
>>
>>
>>
>>    3. Finally, how can one distinguish books from manuscripts in this
>>    listing?
>>
>> When references of an edition are given (“Calcutta, 1818”), the book is
>> printed or lithographed. If not, it is “autographed”. But most of the
>> manuscripts of the Burnouf collection were directly integrated to the
>> “Sanscrit” collection which had been thematically classified by Cabaton
>> (Buddhism, Vedism, Purāṇa, Grammar, etc.). You can ask the online
>> catalogue: Recherche avancée / Cote = ancienne cote = « Burnouf ».
>>
>> https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/
>>
>>
>>
>> Another ensemble should be considered. The scientific archives of Eugène
>> Burnouf are gathered under the “Papiers Burnouf” collection. They were
>> catalogued by Léon Feer in 1899.
>>
>> https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2557127
>>
>>
>>
>> I take this opportunity to announce the recent publication of my book
>> devoted to the history of the Indian manuscript collection of the National
>> Library of France, with a particular focus on the Charles d’Ochoa
>> collection. The book (in French) is open access.
>>
>> https://books.openedition.org/ephe/3603
>>
>>
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Jérôme Petit
>>
>> --
>> Curator of South and Southeast Asian manuscript collections at the
>> National Library of France (BnF)
>> Professor for manuscript cultures of the Indian world at the École
>> pratique des hautes études (EPHE-PSL)
>> BnF Richelieu - 5 rue Vivienne 75002 Paris
>> https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8622-1087
>> https://cv.hal.science/jerome-petit
>>
>>
>>
>> Le mar. 30 déc. 2025 à 00:44, Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> a écrit :
>>
>>>
>>> Can someone familiar with the Paris collections help me with this?  In
>>> vol. 1 (1907) of Cabaton's *Catalogue sommaire des manuscrits sanscrits
>>> et palis*, on page 181
>>> <https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.6175/page/n187/mode/1up> ,
>>> there begins the catalogue of the Burnouf collection.  My questions are:
>>>
>>>    1. What is the meaning of the numbering?  The first number is just a
>>>    serial number in Cabaton's catalogue, but the Burnouf materials have a
>>>    second number in parentheses.  What's that number? It's also sequential.
>>>    2. The footnote on p. 181 refers to a published list of materials in
>>>    a fire (I can't find that publication).  Was Burnouf's collection
>>>    destroyed?  Are we looking at a list of books and manuscripts that *used*
>>>    to exist?  Or were merely singed (like Zaehner's books in Oxford)?
>>>    3. Finally, how can one distinguish books from manuscripts in this
>>>    listing?
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>> Dominik
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dominik Wujastyk, Professor Emeritus, Classical Indian History
>>> University of Alberta
>>>
>>> "The University of Alberta is committed to the pursuit of truth,
>>> the advancement of learning, and the dissemination of knowledge
>>> through teaching, research and other scholarly and creative activities
>>> and service."
>>> -- Collective Agreement
>>> <https://www.ualberta.ca/human-resources-health-safety-environment/media-library/my-employment/agreements/2020-2024-collective-agreement---working-version.pdf>
>>> 3.01
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
>>> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Prof. dr. J.A. Silk
> Professor in the study of Buddhism
> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
> Herta Mohr building 2.142
> Witte Singel 27A
> 2311 BG Leiden
> The Netherlands
>
> Guest Professor, PI of ERC-Project BEST
> Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
> Department für Asienstudien, Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie
> Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
> 80539 München
> Deutschland
>
> website: www.OpenPhilology.eu
> copies of my publications may be found at
> https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk
>
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