KAEMPFER (Engelbert). Histoire naturelle, civile, et ecclesi - Lot 114

KAEMPFER (Engelbert). Histoire naturelle, civile, et ecclesiastique de l'Empire du Japon ... translated into French from the English version by Jean-Gaspard Scheuchzer... Enriched with the necessary plans & maps. Tome premier [- tome troisième]. La Haye, P. Gosse, J. Neaulme, 1732. 3 vol. in-12, (2)-LXX-(2)-312 p., frontispiece, 1 plan, 2 folded maps + (6)-416 p., 1 plan, 3 folded maps + (4)-379-(17) p., table, 2 plans, 4 folded maps, period brown calf, spine ribbed, red title page, red speckled edges, restorations (small tears without missing pl., large repaired tear on a pl. of t.2). Second edition in French and the first in in-12 format, François Naudé's translation based on the English edition of the fundamental work by naturalist, cartographer and physician Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716). The illustration includes an unsigned frontispiece, 4 plans and 9 engraved maps, including the map of Japan. This was the main source on Japan in the 18th century, as the great traveler Kaempfer was one of the only European authors to have actually traveled the archipelago. The encyclopedists drew much of their information from it. The work is divided into 5 books: the first contains the voyage from Batavia to Siam, a brief description of the latter kingdom, the voyage to Japan, a geographical overview of this empire, research into the origins of its inhabitants and its natural history. The second book deals with political history, the third with the history of religion, the fourth with a description of Nagasaki, and the last with the account of Kaempfer's 2 journeys to the court of Japan. The translator has enriched the work with 2 important appendices, one of which concerns tea. Handwritten bookplate in ink, repeated: "Francisci Petit 1734". (Chadenat, n°1884; Cordier, Japonica, col. 416-417).