Author: SAAR, Johann Jacob.
Title: Ost-Indianische Funfzehen-Jährige Kriegs-Dienst und wahrhaftige Beschreibung ...Nuremberg, printed by Wolfgang Eberhard Felssecker and sold by Johann Tauber, 1662. Oblong 8vo. With an engraved title page of a ship engaged in a sea battle, an engraved portrait of the author, and 15 engraved plates. Further with woodcut tailpieces, woodcut decorated initials, and headpieces built up from typographic ornaments. Set in fraktur type with incidental schwabacher, roman, and italic. Contemporary vellum.
Description: [12], 50, 170, "20" [= 18], [12] pp.First edition of Johann Saar's extensive account of his travels from 1644 to 1659 in the Dutch East Indies, the Moluccas and Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). This account, with beautiful plates depicting various aspects of the East Indies, Ceylon and their cultures, including rare eye-witness depictions of native elephant hunting, is a great source of information for the 17th-century exploration of the East Indies and especially Ceylon. The first edition is quite rare, as we have only been able to trace two other copies in sales records of the past hundred years.Johann Jacob Saar (1625-1664) was a German seaman. After working in the service of the Dutch East Indian army in Bantam, Batavia, and the Moluccas, Saar moved to Ceylon in 1647, which he describes most extensively, though he also covers Java, Batavia, the Banda islands, etc. He describes Ceylon’s trees and fruits, wild animals (including the hunting of crocodiles, depicted in 1 plate). He also gives more cultural-anthropological and historical information, such as how the natives treat their sick and dead people, how the king of Ceylon wanted peace with the Dutch, and he comprehensively describes the local practice of elephant hunting, which is beautifully illustrated in three plates. These illustrations, like the others, underline the diversity of the narrative. He and his crew then sailed from Ceylon to the coast of Goa. He describes how the Portuguese tried to capture a silver-fleet from the Japanese, but he also describes a sea battle off the coast of Goa between the Dutch and the Portuguese. On their way home, Saar visited and described Cape Town too, including Table Mountain, depicted in one of the plates. The vellum is somewhat soiled, with brown stains on the front and back, the ties and flyleaves have recently been replaced. The work is somewhat foxed throughout, with annotations in some of the margins. Otherwise in good condition.l Cat. NHSM, p. 174; Landwehr VOC 308; Tiele 952; USTC 2567770 (9 copies); VD 17 23:253491D.
Keywords: [9EE06DC76F16] ASIA|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [C4A78A11DA49] Cartography & Exploration|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [2E35157B4164] India & Sri Lanka|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [F857342FAC3B] Indonesia|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [840DBD7F7389] Southeast Asia|[9EE06DC76F16]
Title: Ost-Indianische Funfzehen-Jährige Kriegs-Dienst und wahrhaftige Beschreibung ...Nuremberg, printed by Wolfgang Eberhard Felssecker and sold by Johann Tauber, 1662. Oblong 8vo. With an engraved title page of a ship engaged in a sea battle, an engraved portrait of the author, and 15 engraved plates. Further with woodcut tailpieces, woodcut decorated initials, and headpieces built up from typographic ornaments. Set in fraktur type with incidental schwabacher, roman, and italic. Contemporary vellum.
Description: [12], 50, 170, "20" [= 18], [12] pp.First edition of Johann Saar's extensive account of his travels from 1644 to 1659 in the Dutch East Indies, the Moluccas and Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). This account, with beautiful plates depicting various aspects of the East Indies, Ceylon and their cultures, including rare eye-witness depictions of native elephant hunting, is a great source of information for the 17th-century exploration of the East Indies and especially Ceylon. The first edition is quite rare, as we have only been able to trace two other copies in sales records of the past hundred years.Johann Jacob Saar (1625-1664) was a German seaman. After working in the service of the Dutch East Indian army in Bantam, Batavia, and the Moluccas, Saar moved to Ceylon in 1647, which he describes most extensively, though he also covers Java, Batavia, the Banda islands, etc. He describes Ceylon’s trees and fruits, wild animals (including the hunting of crocodiles, depicted in 1 plate). He also gives more cultural-anthropological and historical information, such as how the natives treat their sick and dead people, how the king of Ceylon wanted peace with the Dutch, and he comprehensively describes the local practice of elephant hunting, which is beautifully illustrated in three plates. These illustrations, like the others, underline the diversity of the narrative. He and his crew then sailed from Ceylon to the coast of Goa. He describes how the Portuguese tried to capture a silver-fleet from the Japanese, but he also describes a sea battle off the coast of Goa between the Dutch and the Portuguese. On their way home, Saar visited and described Cape Town too, including Table Mountain, depicted in one of the plates. The vellum is somewhat soiled, with brown stains on the front and back, the ties and flyleaves have recently been replaced. The work is somewhat foxed throughout, with annotations in some of the margins. Otherwise in good condition.l Cat. NHSM, p. 174; Landwehr VOC 308; Tiele 952; USTC 2567770 (9 copies); VD 17 23:253491D.
Keywords: [9EE06DC76F16] ASIA|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [C4A78A11DA49] Cartography & Exploration|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [2E35157B4164] India & Sri Lanka|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [F857342FAC3B] Indonesia|[9EE06DC76F16] ASIA -> [840DBD7F7389] Southeast Asia|[9EE06DC76F16]
Price: EUR 17500.00 = appr. US$ 19019.82 Seller: A. Asher & Co. B.V.
- Book number: ABC_49406
- Book number: ABC_49406