A Boro-Budur Jáva Szigetén. Székfoglaló értekezés. Dr. Zichy Ágost l. tagtól. Három képpel.
Budapest: M. Tud. Akadémia Könyvkiadó-Hivatala, 1881. First edition. Issued as vol. IX, no. 2 of Értekezések a Nyelv- és Széptudományok Köréből (1880). In publisher’s printed paper wrappers. 35 [1] p., with 3 plates. Shelfmarks in black and red pencil on title page. Front cover stained; interior clean. A very good copy.
Early scholarly account of Borobudur by Ágost Zichy, Hungarian historian of Eastern art, following his 1876 journey to Java.
First and only edition of Count Ágost Zichy’s inaugural lecture before the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, presenting a detailed historical and archaeological account of the Buddhist temple complex of Borobudur in central Java. Zichy had visited the site in 1876 during private travels in the Dutch East Indies and contextualizes his observations within the broader framework of Hindu-Buddhist history on the island.
A member of the Hungarian nobility with a deep interest in Eastern cultures, Zichy combined travel with historical and archaeological inquiry. In this work, he traces the religious shifts from Brahmanism to Buddhism and then to Islam, outlines the rediscovery of Borobudur by the British in 1814 under Sir Stamford Raffles, and discusses the major 19th-century studies by Wilsen, Brumund, and C. Leemans. His remarks reflect both on the monument’s artistic significance and the relative neglect of Javanese antiquity in European scholarship.
Borobudur, built in the 9th century and later abandoned, is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Zichy’s account is among the earliest Hungarian contributions to the archaeological literature on Southeast Asia.
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Price: €800.00