[Japan]. KAEMPFER (Engelbert). Histoire naturelle, civile, e - Lot 64

[Japan]. KAEMPFER (Engelbert). Histoire naturelle, civile, et ecclésiastique de l'empire du Japon Translated into French from the English version by Jean-Gaspar Scheuchzer. A La Haye, chez P. Gosse, & J. Neaulme, 1729. 2 vols. in-folio, engraved frontispiece, [2] f., LII-217 p., + [2] f., 313-96 p., fr., pl., light fawn calf, 5-ribbed spine decorated with gilt roulettes, blond morocco title-piece, gilt lace at the edges, red edges, text decorated with woodcut lettering and vignette (slight rubbing on boards, edges and nerves, two small tears on one upper board and one spine). First French edition of this work. Kæmpfer, traveler, naturalist and physician, spent two years in Japan on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. There, he objectively observed the empire, the sovereign's court and the state, and here gives as faithful a representation as possible: "the description & ideas I give of things, though perhaps imperfect & without elegance, is of the rest exactly in accordance with the truth, without embellishment & such as the things appeared to me." (Author's preface). The illustration consists of a frontispiece and 45 plates, plans or maps, all engraved on copper. Provenance: Count François Potocki, born around 1787 in Ukraine, related to the Princes de Ligne through his Polish mother-in-law Hélène Massalska (engraved armorial bookplate).