Lot 1185
1185
JAPAN -- KAEMPFER, E. Beschryving van Japan, behelsende een verhaal van den ouden en tegenwoordigen staat en regeering van dat ryk, van deszelfs tempels, paleysen, kasteelen en andere gebouwen; van deszelfs metalen, mineralen, boomen, planten, dieren, vogelen en visschen.(…) in het Engelsch overgezet d. J.G. Scheuzer (…). En uyt het Engelsch in 't Nederduytsch vertaalt. Amst., J. Roman de Jonge, 1733. (4), 50, 500 pp. W. engr. ti-p., 34 fold. engr. plates, 1 full-p. engr. plate, 12 (fold.) maps/plans & 1 lge-fold. map of Japan (w. 2 tears). Fol. Rebacked in mod. cf. w. part of old goatskin spine laid down. (Upper part stained in places (espec. at the beginning), a bit browned/foxed, some handcolouring to first plate).
Engelbrecht Kämpfer (1651-1716), German traveller and physician, became secretary to the embassy which Charles XI. sent through Russia and Persia in 1683. In 1684 he arrived in Isfahan, then the Persian capital. In 1685 he joined the fleet of the Dutch East India Company (V.O.C.) in the Persian Gulf as chief surgeon. After seeing something of Arabia and India, he arrived in Batavia in 1689 where he studied Javanese natural history. In May 1690 he set out for Japan as physician to the embassy sent yearly to that country by the Dutch. He stayed two years in Japan and elicited much valuable information. At his death the unpublished mss. were purchased by Sir Hans Sloane, and conveyed to England. Among them was his History of Japan, translated from the ms. by J.G. Scheuchzer and published at London in 1727. The original German version has never been published. This is the second Dutch edition (first 1729). Besides Japanese history, this book contains a description of the political, social and physical state of the country in the 17th century. For upwards of a hundred years it remained the chief source of information. - Cordier 418; Landwehr VOC 532; Alt-Japan-Kat. 719; Tiele 584 (erroneously calls for 45 plates).€ 3000
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