Toonneel van China, Door veel, Zo Geestelijke als Werreltijke, Geheugteekenen, Verscheide Vertoningen van de Natuur en Kunst.
Stock Code 109900
Amsterdam, J. Janssonius van Waesberge and widow of E. Weyerstraet, [1688].
Original price
£50,000.00
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Original price
£50,000.00
Original price
£0.00
£50,000.00
£50,000.00
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£50,000.00
Current price
£50,000.00
Rare coloured copy. Rare copy coloured in a contemporary hand and heightened with gilt, of one of the most important books shaping the European conception of China.
This first Dutch edition of China Illustrata was published a year after the first two Latin editions. Amongst the illustrations are plants and fruit including tea, rhubarb, papaya and pineapple.
'Gathering his work from other members of the Society [of Jesuits], Kircher wrote one of the century's most influential treatises on China. His primary purpose was to establish the authenticity of the Nestorian monument discovered in Sian; however in addition, Kircher included a sizable description of China and other places in Asia. For example, in a section devoted to Christianity in China, he sketched all the old overland routes, including that of Grueber and d'Orville from Agra to Peking, as well as giving a description of Tibet. There are several chapters on government, customs, geography, fauna, flora, and mechanical arts of China. There is a long Chinese-Latin dictionary. Kircher's volume contains several beautiful pictures taken from Chinese and Mughal originals, which Grueber had brought back to Europe with him in 1664. Although the book was not the product of Kircher's own experience in China, it was frequently used or cited as a source of information by later writers. Some of the information contained in it, for example the text of the Nestorian monument, Roth's description of Hindu religion, and Grueber's description of Tibet, had not appeared in print before.' (Lach).
First Dutch edition; folio (38.1 x 24.5 cm); text in Dutch, translated from the Latin by J.H. Glazemaker. Additional engraved title, double-page map of China, folding map of Asia showing the trade routes to China, and 22 plates (2 of which folding), all as called for on list of plates on verso of final leaf, 60 engravings, mostly half-page, in the text (without the portrait as per some other copies, marginal tear to page 31) coloured in a contemporary hand and heightened with gilt; contemporary mottled calf, panelled in gilt with foliate corner-pieces to inner panel on covers, gilt spine and edges, head of spine repaired, spine label worn, extremities rubbed, a very good copy.
Bobins IV, 1444; Cordier Sinica, 26; Löwendahl I, 136; Lust 39.
This first Dutch edition of China Illustrata was published a year after the first two Latin editions. Amongst the illustrations are plants and fruit including tea, rhubarb, papaya and pineapple.
'Gathering his work from other members of the Society [of Jesuits], Kircher wrote one of the century's most influential treatises on China. His primary purpose was to establish the authenticity of the Nestorian monument discovered in Sian; however in addition, Kircher included a sizable description of China and other places in Asia. For example, in a section devoted to Christianity in China, he sketched all the old overland routes, including that of Grueber and d'Orville from Agra to Peking, as well as giving a description of Tibet. There are several chapters on government, customs, geography, fauna, flora, and mechanical arts of China. There is a long Chinese-Latin dictionary. Kircher's volume contains several beautiful pictures taken from Chinese and Mughal originals, which Grueber had brought back to Europe with him in 1664. Although the book was not the product of Kircher's own experience in China, it was frequently used or cited as a source of information by later writers. Some of the information contained in it, for example the text of the Nestorian monument, Roth's description of Hindu religion, and Grueber's description of Tibet, had not appeared in print before.' (Lach).
First Dutch edition; folio (38.1 x 24.5 cm); text in Dutch, translated from the Latin by J.H. Glazemaker. Additional engraved title, double-page map of China, folding map of Asia showing the trade routes to China, and 22 plates (2 of which folding), all as called for on list of plates on verso of final leaf, 60 engravings, mostly half-page, in the text (without the portrait as per some other copies, marginal tear to page 31) coloured in a contemporary hand and heightened with gilt; contemporary mottled calf, panelled in gilt with foliate corner-pieces to inner panel on covers, gilt spine and edges, head of spine repaired, spine label worn, extremities rubbed, a very good copy.
Bobins IV, 1444; Cordier Sinica, 26; Löwendahl I, 136; Lust 39.
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