THOMSEN, VILHELM.
Inscriptions De L'Orkhon Déchiffrées par Vilh. Thomsen. Suomalais-ugrilaisen seuran toimituksia. V. - Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne. V.
Helsingfors, La Société de Littérature Finnoise, 1896.
Lex 8vo. Bound in a contemporary halfclothbinding with gilt title to spine. Loss to upper capital. Spine slightly faded. Inscribed by the author to front free endpaper: "Hr. Professor, Dr. med. C. Reisz / i oprigtig taknemlighed / med højagtelse og hengivenhed / fra / forf." Insignificant stains to upper margin of a few leaves (pp. 153-168), otherwise internally clean. (1),224 pp.
The rare first edition of Thomsen's decipherment of the Orkhon inscriptions, discovered four years earlier by the Russian explorer Nikolay Yadrintsev. The Orkhon inscriptions are the earliest extant bits of writing in any Turkic language, and Thomsen's article thus constitutes a major breakthrough in the study of Old Turkic. The present copy carries an inscription from Thomsen to Carl Marinus Reisz (1829-1902), doctor and three times rector of the University of Copenhagen.
Order-nr.: 60907
DKK 6.000,00