ALEXANDER de STOURDZA: Considerations sur la Doctrine et l Esprit de l Eglise Orthodoxe. Stuttgart 1816 First edition of an important work on Greek Orthodoxy and its position on the eve of the Revolution. In 8vo 20 x 13 cm, contemporary leather over marbled boards. Text clean and bright. Complete: [2], 218 p. [1]. Bound at the end is a second work, also in French by the same Russian officer, 66 p., on the state of affairs in post-Napoleonic continental Europe. Overall in very good plus condition. Sturdza (1791–1854), a Russian diplomat of Greek descent from the Danubian Principalities, acted in 1815 as secretary to Capodistrias during the Congress of Vienna. Because of his Greek origins and his friendship with Capodistrias, he was a strong supporter of Philhellenism before and during the Greek War of Independence. Together with his sister Roxandra, he sponsored several philanthropic activities to aid the Greeks. Striving to promote a renovated form of Orthodoxy to support the regeneration of the Greek nation, he wrote this work. It provides a detailed description of the situation of the Greek (Rum) Millet under the Ottomans, and the social, educational, and spiritual condition of the Greeks on the eve of the Revolution. An important Philhellenic work.