Remains of Japhet: Being Historical Enquiries into The Affinity and Origin of The European Languages.

London, Printed for the Author: And sold by L. Davis and C. Reymers, 1767. FIRST EDITION. 4to, 262 x 200 mms., pp. xxxii, 491 [420 blank], 2 folding engraved plates, one folding chart or table, with a contemporary note in French by the imprint ("de la biblioth. de mon pere/ V. Lanjuinais"), with notes in the same hand on four of the margins in the preface, bound in contemporary French cat's paw calf, spine richly gilt in compartments, red morocco label, with the bookseller's ticket of Theophile Barrois, fils (1752 - 1836), and the circular armorial bookplate of "Bibliotheque de Mr. Lanjuimais," both on the front paste-down end-paper; lower front joint wormed, top and base of spine chipped, but a good copy, with a rather fine provenance. The physician and antiquary James Parsons (1705 - 1770) got his M. D. degree at the University of Rheims in France in 1736. This was his last published work, "and he used it to attempt to show that the source of many of the European tongues was originally Irish and Welsh—languages he had learned as a boy" (ODNB). It attracted several reviews, mostly unfavorable, and The Critical Review for 1767, in a long and sarcastic article, concluded, "After having thus candidly reviewed this work, we cannot help lamenting that the author has bestowed so much time, labour, and expence, upon a system, which, as he has managed it, is untenable. We find in it little that is new, and less that is useful. It is, upon the whole, a cento collected from the observations and observations of former writers.... We are sorry that Dr. Parsons has disturbed the remains of his good friend Japhet [Japheth, one of Noah's three sons, c. 2205 B. C.] and we should recommend to him, if possible, to recommit them to the same comfortable state of non-existence where he imagines he found them."

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PARSONS (James): - Remains of Japhet: Being Historical Enquiries into The Affinity and Origin of The European Languages.