Dear Jonathan,

Thank you for your interest! 
You can freely read the book on the OpenEdition website. If you want to read the PDF version, you will have to pay, as for the printed version. 
https://books.openedition.org/ephe/3603 (XML version, open access)
https://www.7switch.com/fr/ebook/9782492861253/from/openedition (PDF version, 11,99 euros)
https://i6doc.com/fr/book/?GCOI=28001100998300 (printed version, 28 euros) 

All my best wishes,

Jérôme



Le mar. 30 déc. 2025 à 10:24, Jonathan Silk <kauzeya@gmail.com> 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@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

 

  1. 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

 

  1. 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)



Le mar. 30 déc. 2025 à 00:44, Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <indology@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 ,  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."


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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

copies of my publications may be found at