Eugène Burnouf
Eugène Burnouf | |
---|---|
Paris, France | |
Died | May 28, 1852 | (aged 51)
Occupation | Orientalist |
Eugène Burnouf (French pronunciation:
Life
He was born in
The next great work he undertook was the deciphering of the
From 1833 to 1835 he published his Commentaire sur le Yaçna, l'un des livres liturgiques des Parses.[1]
At about the same time in his life, Eugène Burnouf made significant contributions to the deciphering of Old Persian cuneiform. Copies of cuneiform inscriptions from Persepolis had been published by Carsten Niebuhr many years earlier in 1778 and some preliminary inferences had already been made by other scholars such as Georg Friedrich Grotefend about these Persian inscriptions. In 1836, Eugène Burnouf discovered that the first of the inscriptions contained a list of the satrapies of Darius. With this clue in his hand, he was able to identify and publish an alphabet of thirty letters, most of which he had correctly deciphered.[2][3][4]
A month earlier, Burnouf's friend Professor Christian Lassen of Bonn, had also published a work on "The Old Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions of Persepolis".[4][5] He and Burnouf had been in frequent correspondence, and (Burnouf's?) claim to have independently detected the names of the satrapies, and thereby to have fixed the values of the Persian characters, was in consequence fiercely attacked. However, whatever his obligations to Burnouf may have been, according to Sayce, Lassen's "contributions to the decipherment of the inscriptions were numerous and important."[3]
A year later in 1837,
Eugène Burnouf received many Sanskrit texts from Indologist and anthropologist Brian Houghton Hodgson.[7] He published the Sanskrit text and French translation of the Bhagavata Purana ou histoire poétique de Krichna in three folio volumes (1840–1847). His last works were Introduction à l'histoire du Bouddhisme indien (1844), and a translation of Le lotus de la bonne loi (The Lotus Sutra, 1852).[1][8] According to Jonathan Silk, Burnouf can be regarded as "the founding father of modern Buddhist scientific studies."[9]
He had been for twenty years a member of the
See a notice of Burnouf's works by Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, prefixed to the second edition (1876) of the Introduction à l'histoire du Bouddhisme indien; also Naudet, Notice historique sur MM. Burnouf, père et fils, in Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions. A list of his valuable contributions to the Journal asiatique and of his manuscript writings, is given in the appendix to the Choix de lettres d'Eugène Burnouf (1891).[1]
His cousin
Works
- Essai sur le Pali (1826)
- Vendidad Sade, l'un des livres de Zoroastre (1829–1843)
- Commentaire sur le Yaçna, l'un des livres liturgiques des Parses (1833–1835)[1]
- Mémoire sur les inscriptions cunéiformes (1838)
- Bhâgavata Purâna ou histoire poétique de Krichna (3 volumes, 1840–1847)[1]
- Introduction à l'histoire du Bouddhisme indien (1844 ; 1876)[1]
- Le Lotus de la bonne loi,[1] traduit du sanscrit, accompagné d'un commentaire et de vingt et un mémoires relatifs au buddhisme (Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1852). Reprint: Librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient A. Maisonneuve, Paris, 1973.
- Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, la Perfection de sagesse en huit mille stances, traduite par Eugène Burnouf (1801-1852), éditée par Guillaume Ducoeur, Université de Strasbourg, 2022.
- Eugène Burnouf (1801-1852) et les études indo-iranologiques, actes de la Journée d'étude d'Urville (28 mai 2022) suivis des Lalitavistara (chap. 1-2) et Kāraṇḍavyūha traduits par E. Burnouf, édités par Guillaume Ducoeur, Université de Strasbourg, 2022.
- Eugène Burnouf (in French) .
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Chisholm 1911, p. 855.
- ^ Burnouf, Eugène (1836). Mémoire sur deux Inscriptions Cunéiformes trouvées près d'Hamadan et qui font partie des papiers du Dr. Schulz [Memoir on two cuneiform inscriptions [that were] found near Hamadan and that form part of the papers of Dr. Schulz] (in French). Paris, France: Imprimerie Royale.
- ^ a b c Sayce, Rev. A. H., Professor of Assyriology, Oxford, "The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions", Second Edition-revised, 1908, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, Brighton, New York; at pp 9–16 Not in copyright
- ^ a b Prichard, James Cowles, "Researches Into the Physical History of Mankind", 3rd Ed., Vol IV, 1844, Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, London, at pages 30-31
- ^ Lassen, Christian (1836). Die Altpersischen Keil-Inschriften von Persepolis. Entzifferung des Alphabets und Erklärung des Inhalts [The Old-Persian cuneiform inscriptions of Persepolis. Decipherment of the alphabet and explanation of its content.] (in German). Bonn, (Germany): Eduard Weber.
- ^ Rawlinson Henry 1847 "The Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun, decyphered and translated; with a Memoir on Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions in general, and on that of Behistun in Particular", The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol X. It seems that various parts of this paper formed Vol X of this journal. The final part III comprised chapters IV (Analysis of the Persian Inscriptions of Behistunand) and V (Copies and Translations of the Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions of Persepolis, Hamadan, and Van), pp. 187-349.
- S2CID 171060516.
- ISBN 4-9980622-2-0
- ^ Silk, Jonathan (2012). Review: "A Missed Opportunity: Introduction to the History of Indian Buddhism by Eugene Burnouf. Translated by Katia Buffetrille and Donald Lopez. University of Chicago Press 2010." History of Religions 51 (3), 262
References
- Delisle, Laure Burnouf: Choix de lettres d'Eugene Burnouf. Suivi d'une bibliographie, Paris: H. Champion (1891) Internet Archive
- Burnouf, Eugène (trad.): Le lotus de la bonne loi traduit du sanscrit, accompagné d'un commentaire et de vingt et un mémoires relatifs au buddhisme. Paris : Maisonneuve frères 1925. Internet Archive (PDF 34,9 MB)
- Burnouf, Eugène: Legends of Indian Buddhism; New York, Dutton 1911. Internet Archive
- Burnouf, Eugène: Introduction à l'histoire du buddhisme indien, Paris: Imprimerie royale1844. Internet Archive
Attribution:
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Burnouf, Eugène". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 885. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
External links
- Media related to Eugène Burnouf at Wikimedia Commons
- Notice sur les travaux de M. Eugène Burnouf (in French).
- Guillaume Ducoeur (2022). "Burnouf, Eugène", INHA, Collectionneurs, collecteurs et marchands d'art asiatique en France 1700-1939 (in French and English).