Author: MONTANUS Arnoldus (ca. 1625 - 1683) - [ ] :
Title: Ambassades mémorables de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales des Provinces Unies vers les Empereurs du Japon. Contenant plusieurs choses remarquables arrivées pendant le voyage des Ambassadeurs ; et deplus, la description Des Villes, Bourgs , Châteaux , Forteresses, Temples &....
Description: .: Amsterdam, (Jan van Meurs), 1680, in-folio, 35 x 22,5 cm, 2 parts in one volume. (8)nn pp ( engraved title, typographical title printed in red & black, dedication with engraved vignet) + 227 pp + (8)nn pp ( table) + (1)(bl.) ; 146 pp + (6)nn pp (table) + 26 engravings outside the text ( 1 folding map + 4 folding plates + 21 double-page plates) , with 70 engravings in the text. ( complete ). the printer's name on the typographical title has a tipped on label with the name of the Paris printer-publisher ''Antoine Cellier'' , ruë de la Harpe. Bound in contemporary full mottled calf, raised spine with gilt decoration and title in gold on spine. With floral roll decoration on the board edges. Sprinkled edges. Binding in a very good state of preservation. Lower margin of the first two pages with some soiling , some marginal tears in a few text pages repaired with old transparent paper applied on one side. A few of the double-page plates equally repaired in the lower end of the fold, some sparse stains at a few pages. Overall a fine copy in a very well preserved contemporary binding. On the title page is a small written name ( ex-libris ?) ''D. Loos''. In the upper margin of the first paste down is written '' Marselary. du don de mon Père le premier jour de l'an 1682''. Underneath this line is a very small 19th c. label ( 2 x 1 cm) with the manuscript inscription '' bibliothèque de lue '' (?). This is the first edition in French of Montanus' work on Japan. The very first edition in Dutch was published in 1669. It was to become the most informative and best illustrated work on Japan, its history, topography;culture and politics for a long period. This French edition contains 4 reworked large plates and also, for the first time, a view of Fort Zeelandia in Taiwan. The book contains firsthand information collected by Jesuit missions to Japan in 1649 and 1661 ; VOC embassies by Bloovius Frisium, Zacharias Wagenaer (1657) ; Hendrik Indyk (1661 ).. (See Cordier Japonica 385 ; Cox I 325 ; Landwehr VOC 525.). .

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