Author: HALDE, Jean-Baptiste du.
Title: Description géographique historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise, enrichie des cartes générales et particulieres de ces pays, de la carte générale & des cartes particulieres du Thibet, & de la Corée.Paris, P.G. le Mercier, 1735. 4 volumes. Folio (ca. 43 x 28 cm). With 43 engraved maps (folding, double-page and full-page), 21 engraved plates (folding, double-page and full-page), numerous decorated woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces. Contemporary gold- and blind-tooled mottled calf.
Description: [4], VIII, LII, IV, 592; [4], IV, 725, [1]; [4], IV, 564, IX-[XII]; [4], II, 520 pp.First edition of this unsurpassed encyclopedic description of China, with extensive descriptions of all aspects of Chinese life, religion, customs, trades and professions, language, music, arts and sciences, especially astronomy and medicine. The work is richly illustrated with newly engraved maps, plans, and folding engraved plates. It is often regarded as the most complete and most valuable history of the Chinese Empire to have appeared up to the time of its publication.The engraved plates show costumes, smaller town plans, scenes from court life and other subjects. The maps were based on the Jesuit surveys carried out between 1708 and 1718. The work also includes descriptions of Korea, Siberia, and Tibet. Added at the end is the account of Gerbillon's travels into Western Tartary, undertaken in 1688-1689 by order of the Chinese Emperor, as well as Ferdinand Verbiest's accounts of his two journies into Manchuria and Mongolia, both made in the train of the Emperor Kang-hi in 1682, and Engelbrecht Kämpfer's famous description of Japan, complete with the added Japanese diary by J.G. Scheuchzer, from 1673. The work was republished in The Hague and translated into English by R. Brookes (The general history of China (London 1636 in 8vo)) in the following year. A German translation appeared in Rostock, 1747-49.This encyclopedic survey by the Jesuit Jean-Baptiste du Halde (1674-1743), based on the reports of seventeen Jesuit missionaries, was the prime source for the new fashion of chinoiserie in the eighteenth century. It was also an important source of information for many authors, including Voltaire who considered China in 1765 as an enlightened Utopia, basing himself on the work of Du Halde. At least during the entire century following its publication in 1735, Du Halde was 'Pflichtlektüre' for all discussions and conversations relating to China.With two versions of the bookplate of the library of the Earls of Macclesfield mounted on the front pastedown and first endleaf of each volume. The edges and corners of the boards are scuffed, the front and back boards are somewhat scraped and rubbed, the hinges are slightly weakeend, without affecting the structural integrity of the binding. Some light spotting and browning on some leaves, a few water stains at the foot of volumes 2-4. Otherwise in very good condition.l Cordier, Sinica 46-47; Lust 12; Sommervogel IV, 35.11.
Keywords: [9EE06DC76F16] ASIA|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [C4A78A11DA49] Cartography & Exploration|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [B168CF891AD9] China|[80CBADC1D9E8] CARTOGRAPHY & EXPLORATION|[80CBADC1D9E8] CARTOGRAPHY & EXPLORATION -> [C1D22201B2B0] Asia|[80CBADC1D9E8] CARTOGR
Title: Description géographique historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise, enrichie des cartes générales et particulieres de ces pays, de la carte générale & des cartes particulieres du Thibet, & de la Corée.Paris, P.G. le Mercier, 1735. 4 volumes. Folio (ca. 43 x 28 cm). With 43 engraved maps (folding, double-page and full-page), 21 engraved plates (folding, double-page and full-page), numerous decorated woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces. Contemporary gold- and blind-tooled mottled calf.
Description: [4], VIII, LII, IV, 592; [4], IV, 725, [1]; [4], IV, 564, IX-[XII]; [4], II, 520 pp.First edition of this unsurpassed encyclopedic description of China, with extensive descriptions of all aspects of Chinese life, religion, customs, trades and professions, language, music, arts and sciences, especially astronomy and medicine. The work is richly illustrated with newly engraved maps, plans, and folding engraved plates. It is often regarded as the most complete and most valuable history of the Chinese Empire to have appeared up to the time of its publication.The engraved plates show costumes, smaller town plans, scenes from court life and other subjects. The maps were based on the Jesuit surveys carried out between 1708 and 1718. The work also includes descriptions of Korea, Siberia, and Tibet. Added at the end is the account of Gerbillon's travels into Western Tartary, undertaken in 1688-1689 by order of the Chinese Emperor, as well as Ferdinand Verbiest's accounts of his two journies into Manchuria and Mongolia, both made in the train of the Emperor Kang-hi in 1682, and Engelbrecht Kämpfer's famous description of Japan, complete with the added Japanese diary by J.G. Scheuchzer, from 1673. The work was republished in The Hague and translated into English by R. Brookes (The general history of China (London 1636 in 8vo)) in the following year. A German translation appeared in Rostock, 1747-49.This encyclopedic survey by the Jesuit Jean-Baptiste du Halde (1674-1743), based on the reports of seventeen Jesuit missionaries, was the prime source for the new fashion of chinoiserie in the eighteenth century. It was also an important source of information for many authors, including Voltaire who considered China in 1765 as an enlightened Utopia, basing himself on the work of Du Halde. At least during the entire century following its publication in 1735, Du Halde was 'Pflichtlektüre' for all discussions and conversations relating to China.With two versions of the bookplate of the library of the Earls of Macclesfield mounted on the front pastedown and first endleaf of each volume. The edges and corners of the boards are scuffed, the front and back boards are somewhat scraped and rubbed, the hinges are slightly weakeend, without affecting the structural integrity of the binding. Some light spotting and browning on some leaves, a few water stains at the foot of volumes 2-4. Otherwise in very good condition.l Cordier, Sinica 46-47; Lust 12; Sommervogel IV, 35.11.
Keywords: [9EE06DC76F16] ASIA|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [C4A78A11DA49] Cartography & Exploration|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [B168CF891AD9] China|[80CBADC1D9E8] CARTOGRAPHY & EXPLORATION|[80CBADC1D9E8] CARTOGRAPHY & EXPLORATION -> [C1D22201B2B0] Asia|[80CBADC1D9E8] CARTOGR
Price: EUR 50000.00 = appr. US$ 54342.35 Seller: A. Asher & Co. B.V.
- Book number: 967H6LQAL3CC
- Book number: 967H6LQAL3CC