Oriental Repertory.

Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808), Scottish geographer and the first Hydrographer of the British Admiralty, lost out on the command of the Endeavour voyage to Capt. Cook. Despite the numerous perceived slights and rebuffs that followed, he remains one of the most significant figures in the history of voyages and discovery. A maverick scholar who wanted to be a man of action, his fate was to be a pollinator of ideas for the activities of others.

The work dates from Dalrymple's time of involvement with the East India Company. It seems from surviving records that he may have arranged for about five hundred copies to be printed, some for contributors, some for subscribers, and a large quantity for the East India Company itself; however various booksellers have mentioned a figure of only one hundred and eighty copies in the past. In any event, not all copies were distributed, as sheets remained in the in 1808.

Dalrymple proposed the Oriental Repertory as an occasional publication in parts, each with a variety of short pieces illustrated by topographical plates. He saw a place among the scientific and antiquarian journals and 'gentlemen's magazines' of Britain and India, for such a vehicle on oriental matters. Asiatick Miscellany (1785-1788) and Asiatick Researches (1788 onwards) were fresh on the scene, and Dalrymple himself was an active Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London in the 1780s and 1790s.

As first proposed, the plan for the Oriental Repertory envisaged groups of separate tracts on 'the Geography, Commerce, History, and Manners of the Eastern Parts'. Dalrymple claimed to have drawn up 'a scheme for such an occasional Publication' some years before and, in 1791, extended it to 'everything, not Nautical, that can promote the Publick knowledge of the East'.