'THE CHIEF SOURCE OF WESTERN KNOWLEDGE'
TRANSLATED FROM THE UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT KAEMPFER, Engelbert, and Johann Gaspar SCHEUCHZER, translator.
The History of Japan, giving an Account of the ancient and present State and Government of that Empire; of its Temples, Palaces, Castles and other Buildings; of its Metals, Minerals, Trees, Plants, Animals, Birds and Fishes; of the Chronology and Succession of the Emperors, ecclesiastical and secular; of the original Descent, Religions, Customs, and Manufactures of the Natives, and of their Trade and Commerce with the Dutch and Chinese, together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam …
First edition, first issue, of the German naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer’s monumental History of Japan, translated from an unpublished manuscript in Sir Hans Sloane’s library by his librarian, the Swiss naturalist Johann Caspar Scheuchzer, and illustrated with splendid plates from Kaempfer’s unfinished originals.
Read more