
KAEMPFER (ENGELBERT) The History of Japan: Giving an Account of the Antient and Present State of Government of that Empire... together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam, 2 vol., for the Publisher, and Thomas Woodward and Charles Davis, 1728
£3,000 - £5,000
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KAEMPFER (ENGELBERT)
Footnotes
Kaempfer's 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 six appendices, on tea, Japanese paper, acupuncture, moxa, ambergris, and Japan's seclusion policy" (DSB). Kaempfer was a physician for the Dutch East India Company's trading settlement at Nagasaki in the late seventeeth century. Sir Hans Sloane acquired the manuscript after Kaempfer's death, and arranged for it translated into English for this edition.