Brief History Of Buddhist Studies In Europe And Maerica

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

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THE EASTERN BUDDHIST
known in Europe was the Kammavācā. In his Systema brahmanicum Paulinus quoted an Italian translation in the Library of the Propagation of the Faith made from the Pāli original in 1776.30 Another translation was described by Paulinus two years later in the catalogue already mentioned. 31 According to him this text is accompanied by a commentary. It is not clear whether the commentary accompanying the text was based upon a Pāli text or on oral explanations.32 Paulinus quotes several passages from the Peguanus codex (Burmese manuscript) of the Kammuva and adds explanations which were given by an erudite interpreter (eruditus interpres). The explanations, quoted by Paulinus, are obviously added to the translation by the Italian translator. Only an examination of the manuscript, which has been in the Library of the Vatican since 1902, will be able to show whether or not the explanations are due to the translator.33 Perhaps it will also be possible to discover whether the Italian translator has used a Pāli text or whether his translation is based upon a Burmese version of the original. Another translation was made in Burma by Father Vincente Sangermano (1758–1819, cf. Windisch, p. 17). His translation was published in English by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton (1762-1829) in an article published in 1799 in the Asiatick Researches: On the Religion and Literature of the Burmas (As. Res., VI, 1799, pp. 136–308). Buchanan received from Captain Symes three Latin translations made by Sangermano: 1. A cosmography, extracted from various Burmese writings (pp. 167–256); 2. A short view of the religion of Godama written by a late Tarado or king's confessor (pp. 265-273);
30 According to Burnouf the manuscript contains also the Pāli text. Cf. Papiers d'Eugène Burnouf, Paris, 1899, p. IIS.
31 Kammuva, o sia Trattato dell'ordinazione dei Talapoini del secondo ordine, detti Pinzen, 30 pp. (Musei Borgiani Velitris Codices etc., No. 6, p. 84).
32 Kammuva, o sia trattato della ordinazione dei Talapoini in carattere Pali o Bali sopra ole dorate. Traduzione fatta per commissione di Monsignor Stefano Borgia segret. di Propag. nel 1776 (Systema, p. 114, n. 2). According to Burnouf the explanations quoted by Paulinus (Systema, p. IIS: Innanzi a tutto, etc.,) are to be found in the manuscript in the library of Velletri, but in his Systema Paulinus seems to refer only to the manuscript in the library of the Propagation of the Faith.
33 Cf. The remarks on the commentary by Buchanan Asiatick Researches, VI, 1799, p. 280) and by Spiegel (Kammavākyam, Bonn, 1841, p. xi). I have been unable to consult Paulinus's Catalogue, p. 84, to which Buchanan refers.
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