Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste (1674-1743), S.J.

4 volumes, folio (431 x 281mm.), [4], viii, lii, iv, 592; [4], iv, 725, [1]; [4], iv, 564, ix-[xii]; [4], ii, 520pp., large paper copy, title-pages printed in red and black, illustration: 43 folding or double-page engraved maps, 22 engraved plates, engraved vignette on title-pages, 5 engraved head-pieces and 5 engraved initials, a few woodcut illustrations and diagrams in text, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces, typographic ornaments, binding: contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, light spotting on some leaves, a few lightly browned, some water-staining at the foot of volumes 2-4 mostly in margins, but also affecting some plates, sides of bindings slightly rubbed

Lust 12; Cordier, Sinica 46-47; Sommervogel iv 35.11 

first edition, a large paper copy. the most comprehensive survey of china printed in the eighteenth century, drawn from the accounts and surveys (both published and unpublished) of twenty-seven Jesuits. This encyclopaedic work not only provided valuable information on Chinese political institutions, education, language, medicine, science, customs and artefacts, but also included the first appearance of 43 maps by d'Anville. Drawn from recent surveys made by the Jesuits in China, these maps are considered by Tooley to be "the principal cartographic authority on China during the 18th century". The work also contains the first separate map of korea, together with a previously unpublished account of that country by Jean-Baptiste Régis.