Histoire des Bohémiens, ou Tableau des moeurs, usages et coutumes de ce peuple nomade; suivie de recherches historiques sur leur origine, leur language et leur première apparition en Europe. Traduit de l'allemand sur la deuxième édition. Par M. J.

8vo: [4]-354 pp. (foxing, marg. damp stains in 2nd part of the vol. and one large on last quires).

Mod. half marbled leather by R. Stevens, marbled paper boards, gilt-ruled flat spine (rubbed, orig. wrappers pres. with reused text f. on versos).

First edition of the translation by Hendrik Jansen of one of the first anthropological works on Romani people (1st in German: 1783), studying their morals, religion, politics, language, etc. The Dutch statistician and historian Grellmann (1756-1804) had demonstrated the Indian origin of this nomadic people through similarities with Sanskrit and Hindi (cfr. the vocabulary Bohemian-Hindi-French at pp. 287-311), a fact later confirmed by ethnophilologists.