Page from the Kan-Djono (colour litho)

Choice examples of paleography, facsimiles from rare and curious manuscripts of oriental countries. Page from the Kan-Djono, Mongolian manuscript of the sixteenth century. The reproduction given here is of a page of a Mongol manuscript of the Kan-Djono, the bible of the Tibetan Mongols, discovered by some Russians about 1700, in an old ruined and deserted monastery, probably Buddhist, near the source of the Irtish. The Mongolian alphabet traces its origin to that of the Kon-chi, a Tartar nation, which flourished about AD 50. There is no doubt, however, from the general characteristics of the script, that, in common with other Tibetan scripts, it can be traced back through the Kon-chi to the original Syriac. The boldness of the script is remarkable. Published in The World's Great Classics, Library Comittee; published by The Colonial Press, New York & London, 1899.