A Grammar of the High Dialect of the Tamil Language, termed Shen-Tamil:

The first printed edition of the first grammar of High Tamil, never published alongside Constanzo Beschi's groundbreaking Grammatica Latino-tamulica of 1738, his grammar of 'Low' Tamil.

The manuscript was in Latin, as were most of the language texts produced by the Dutch missionaries at Tranquebar, but has been translated here into English by Benjamin Guy Babington (1794-1866) for its first printing. Babington is better known for his later contributions to epidemiology, but was working for the Government at Madras when he translated and published this work.

Constantine Joseph Beschi (1680-1747), an Italian Jesuit priest at the Madura Mission, was a pioneer of the study of Tamil and the first to pay attention to the rich landscape of Tamil literature, rather than simply knowing the language to help spread the word of God, and his corpus of translations underpin the history of modern Tamil poetry and prose. What makes this present work different to a typical grammar is that he extensively uses poetical verse as examples for his grammatical explanations, and is intended as a guide to translating Tamil literature as sympathetically as possible.

Scarce, just 6 copies held in UK institutions (BL, Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, RAS, Society of Antiquaries).

First edition; 4to (31 x 23 cm); contemporary half calf, marbled boards, all edges speckled blue, rebacked with original spine laid down, boards rubbed, bookplate to pastedown, a very good copy; [ii], xii, v, 117 pp.