MONTANUS (Arnold). Ambassades de la Compagnie hollandoise de - Lot 151

MONTANUS (Arnold). Ambassades de la Compagnie hollandoise des Indes d'Orient, vers l'empereur du Japon divisées en trois parties ; avec une relation exacte des guerres civiles de ce païs-là. Leiden, Henry Drummond, 1686. 3 parts in 2 vol. in-12, (6)-455 p. and (2)-520 p., modern blond half-maroquin, spine ribbed with cold fillet, gilt title, gilt head [Bonneau] (browning). "An exceptional sum of knowledge on 17th-century Japan" (Polak). First French edition in in-12 format, illustrated with an engraved frontispiece. Arnold Montanus (1625-1683), a Calvinist historian and theologian, never left Europe, but developed a passion for travel reports from distant lands. The book owes much to the observations of Jesuit missionaries and, above all, to documents drawn from the archives of the East India Company, the only European trading partner still tolerated. (Polak & Dugrand, 58-61 : ; Cordier, Japonica, 385).