Kaempfer, Engelbert (1651-1716).

Estimate

3,000 - 4,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

The history of Japan, giving an account of the ancient and present state, and government of that empire... To which is added, part of a journal of a voyage to Japan, made by the English in the year 1673. London: for the publisher, 1728-1727

2 volumes in one, folio (353 x 225mm.), [8], lii, 391, [5]; [4], 393-612, 75, [1 (blank)], [2], 11, [13 (last 2 blank)] pp., title-pages printed in red and black, illustration: additional engraved title-page (dated 1727), 45 engraved plates and maps (all but one folding), woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces, binding: contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, small hole (paper flaw) in text of 7D1, binding worn, leather of both covers lifting

Literature

Cordier, Japonica 413; Nissen BBI 1019

Catalogue Note

Second edition of Kaempfer's great work on Japan, which remained for more than a century the chief source of Western knowledge of that country. Kaempfer had died in 1716, but Sir Hans Sloane acquired his manuscripts and saw to their translation (by Johann Caspar Scheuchzer) and publication. The resulting work contains the first biography of Kaempfer, an account of his journey, descriptions of Japan and its fauna, and an appendix on tea, paper, acupuncture, moxa, ambergris and Japan's seclusion policy. The first edition was published in 1727.