KAEMPFER, Engelbert

The History of Japan...

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Thomas Woodward and Charles Davis, London, 1728. Two volumes, folio, with an engraved additional title (dated 1727) and 45 plates and maps, many folding (a couple of clean tears); titles printed in red and black; contemporary panelled calf, spines gilt; neat old repairs to spines. An excellent and very attractive copy of this exceptionally important book on Japan.

Kaempfer sailed from Batavia via Siam as a physician with the Dutch East India Company and reached Japan in late 1690. Although much of his two-year sojourn was spent on the island of Deshima, to which the Dutch merchants were confined by the strict orders of the Tokugawa regime, he was twice able to accompany the annual Dutch embassy from Nagasaki to the Shogun's court at Edo (Tokyo). After his death in 1716 Sir Hans Sloane bought his botanical collections and library, including the unpublished manuscript of the History of Japan, which was translated into English by Sloane's librarian, J.G. Scheuchzer, and published in 1727 under the aegis of the Royal Society. The English edition of Kaempfer's book is therefore its first appearance in print in any language.

The History of Japan was 'for more than a century the chief source of Western knowledge of the country. It contains the first biography of Kaempfer, an account of his journey, a history and description of Japan and its fauna, a description of Nagasaki and Deshima; a report on two embassies to Edo with a description of the cities which were visited on the way; and appendixes on tea, Japanese paper, acupuncture, moxa, ambergris, and Japan's seclusion policy' (DSB). The Second Appendix, present in this issue, recounts the unsuccessful attempt of the English East India Company in 1673 to re-open direct trade with Japan after a lapse of 50 years.

This very attractive copy is an example of the first edition, in its second and best issue which has an extra Second Appendix containing 'part of an authentick journal of a voyage to Japan, made by the English in the year 1673'. This was not included in the original version of the book issued in 1727. This edition is otherwise a re-issue of the 1727 sheets with new title-pages (dated 1728) which specify the addition of the journal - which has its own title-page, dated 1728, and preface. Both volumes of the present copy have a 1728 title-page; some copies of the edition have a 1727 title-page in the second volume. Here the engraved title to the first volume retains its 1727 date.
Landwehr, VOC, 530n; Nissen, BB! 1019n; Wellcome III, 376.

• AUD 38,500.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: 705_972

• bookseller: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)