[Giorgi, Antonio Agostino] Alphabetum Tibetanum missionum apostolicarum commodo editum. Rome Typis Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide 1759 [but 1763]
First edition. 4to, 31 x 23 cm; pp.208; illustrations to text; printed Tibetan characters to text. Modern half calf; untrimmed and unopened; a crisp copy with wide margins. Propaganda Fide stamp to margin of p.80, defaced stamps to title-page and p.208.

The first detailed study of the Tibetan language published. Both this first edition of 1759 and the 1762 edition were probably issued in 1763; both contain obituaries and ecclesiastical authorisations dated to that year. This edition contains the section on the Tibetan language only, which incorporates a small number of literary and historical notices, but nothing to compare to the vast apparatus found in the 1762 edition. The present work remains a landmark in Tibetan studies. The appendices include various foundational Catholic prayers in Latin and Tibetan. Antonio Agostino Giorgi (1711-97), Augustinian friar and noted philologist, based this work on material collected by Francesco Orazio on the Capucin mission to Tibet, which was terminated in 1745.