Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/94

 70 BENGALI LITERATURE Manoel da Assumpcad). A little worm-eaten and partly mutilated copy of this work! exists im the Library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. The running title is: Crepar Xaxtrer Orth,bhed or Cathe- Crepar Xaxtrer Orth a : . / ee ie LENO Wt ? ; f Biter iy cecum la Doutrina Christad. The da Doutrina Christad Copy in the Asiatic Society is want- ing in the title-page; but an interest- ing certificate of publication in Portuguese is inserted at the beginning from which we learn that it was com- pleted on August 28, 1754. It is dated from a place named Ba1, * which appears to be Bhawal from a reference at page 2 of the book itself, where Nagori also is mentioned. It might have been, as Father Lopes suggests on the authority of Barbosa Machado,$ printed at Lisbon by Francisco da Silva (Sylva) in 1743: but unfortunately the loss of the title-page deprives us of the most certain means of corroborating this suggestion.4 1 An account of this work on the basis of this copy was read by me at the Bahgiya Sahitya Parisat on Sept. 24, 1916: the paper is published in the Patrika (vol. 28, p. 179) of the same Society, which see for detailed information. 2 The Preface, as we have it now, is in places worm-eaten. This is what can be deciphered : Certifico eu Fr. Manoel da/ Assumpead, Reitor da Mis(si)o, de S. Nicolao Tolentino e/ (ac)tor deste comperdio; (e)star o compendio tresladado ao pe (da) / letra assim o Bengalla como o (Po)- rtuguez: e certifico mais ser es/ Doatrina que os naturaes mais; tendem, e entre todas a mais (pu)rificada de erros, em fé de que/ esta Certidad, e se necessario/ a juro In Verbo Sacerdotis. Ba (va)l. aos. 28 de Agosto de 1734. Fr. Manoel da Assumpead. 3 Bibliotheca Lusitana Historica Critica e Chronologica, t. iii, p. 188, col, il. 1880) also gives 1743 and Lisbon as the date and place of publication, (৪. ৮. Manoel da Assumpgead) his authorities being Barbosa-Machado and Ossinger (Bibliotheca Augustiniana, p. 84). Ossinger gives the title as: Cathecismus doctrinae Christianae per modum dialogi,
 * Burnell (A Tentative List of Portuguese Books and Manuscripts