Histoire naturelle, civile et ecclésiastique de l'empire du Japon

The Hague: P. Gosse & J. Neaulme, c. 1729. A fine example of this important work. Text and plates are clean and crisp. In full period calf. . Edition: First French Edition. , Binding: Contemporary full calf. Spine in seven compartments of raised bands. Text on Morocco label on 2. Tooled ornamentation on 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Tooled dentelles on all edges. All edges speckled. , Notes: Text is in French. A history of Japan created by a German physician during the early 18th century. Engelbert Kaempfer (1651 –1716) was a German naturalist, physician, and writer known for his tour of Russia, Persia, India, South-East Asia, and Japan between 1683 and 1693. His History of Japan, published posthumously in 1727, was the chief source of Western knowledge about the country throughout the 18th and mid-19th centuries when it was closed to foreigners. Kaempfer stayed two years in Japan, during which time he twice visited Edo and the Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. He conducted extensive studies on local plants. When he visited Buddhist monks in Nagasaki in February 1691, he was the first western scholar to describe the tree Ginkgo biloba.
Kaempfer also collected materials and information on Japanese acupuncture and moxibustion. His treatise on the cure of colic using needles and his presentation of a Japanese "Moxa-mirror" had a considerable influence on the reception of Far Eastern medicine in 18th-century Europe. Has bookplate of Nordkirchen Library (m the library of the Dukes of Arenberg at their Nordkirchen castle) on verso of top cover.
, Size: Folio (362x234mm). , Illustration: Complete with engraved title page, a table of the Japanese alphabet, 9 maps and 36 plates. , Volume: 2 volumes in 1. , References: Cordier, Japonica p. 414-15; Cox I:332 ;Howgego 1 K1, Pages: P. Blank, engraved title, title, dedication, epistle (3), table (2), preface (i-iv), life of the author (v-xii), tanslator’s discourse (xiii-xliii), explination of the plates (xlv-lii), table, 1-217, title, chaper table (2), 1-313, 1-96, blank. (77 mispag. as 67 and count continues from there; page 37 of the appendix mispag as 39 and count continues from there; 74 mispag as 73 and count continues from there), Category: Book Asia Far East; Book Voyages General; Book Natural History