VALLANCEY, Lieut. General Charles. Prospectus of a Dictionary of the Language of the Aire Coti, or, Ancient Irish, compared with the Language of the Cuti, or Ancient Persians, with the Hindoostanee, the Arabic, and Chaldean Languages. With a preface, containing an epitome of the ancient history of Ireland, corroborated by late discoveries in the Puranas of the Brahmins, by our learned countrymen in the East. And an Account of the Ogham Tree-Alphabet of the Irish, lately found in an ancient Arabic manuscript in Egypt. With two plates.

Dublin, Graisberry, 1802. Quarto. pp. [iv], 39, [3], lxxxviii, [4], 77, [1]. Half calf on cloth boards, title in gilt on recent black morocco on spine. Some mild foxing and wear to head of spine. A very good copy. Very rare.

Not in Bradshaw or Gilbert. Charles Vallancey, (1721-1812), General and antiquarian, came to Ireland in 1761 to assist in a military survey of the island, and made this country his adopted home. He had a great interest in Irish history, philology and antiquities, at a time when their study was totally neglected by the establishment. De Búrca Rare Books 7 During the Rebellion of 1798 he furnished plans for the defence of Dublin. In his works he made extravagant claims as to the origins and antiquity of the language, and while these are historically important, he is considered an eccentric rathar than as a serious scholar.

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