80/3176 [Japan]. Kaempfer, E. De Beschryving van Japan, behelsende een verhaal van den ouden en tegenwoordigen Staat en Regeering van dat Ryk, van deszelfs Tempels, Paleysen, Kasteelen en andere Gebouwen; van deszelfs Metalen, Mineralen, Boomen, Planten, Dieren, Vogelen en Visschen. Van de Tydrekening, en Opvolging van de Geestelyke en Wereldlyke Keyzers (...). The Hague/ Amst., P. Gosse, J. Neaulme and B. Lakeman, 1729, 1st Dutch ed., (2),50,500p., engr. title, 48 fold./ double-p. engr. maps, plates and plans, contemp. calf, folio.

- Halftitle, title and frontisp. professionally restored and reattached; a few text-pages sl. stained; new endpapers. Professionally restored binding w. use of contemp. leather.

= LARGE PAPER copy. Landwehr VOC, 531; Cordier Bibl. Japonica, p.417f; Alt-Japan Katalog 717; DSB p.204ff; Howgego p.562; Henze III, p.3-6; cat. NHSM p.233; Tiele 584; Rouffaer/ Muller p.440; cf. Wellcome III, p.376. "Kaempfer's Werk ist das erste auf Autopsie und Quellenauswertung beruhende Grundwerk über Japan" (Henze); "Kaempfer arrived in Java in October 1689. The following year he was appointed to accompany the annual voyage to Japan of the East India Company as a physician. He remained in Nagasaki from September 1690 to October 1692 and twice accompanied the chief of the factory at Deshima on his embassy to Edo (now Tokyo). In Nagasaki he made a profound study of Japanese history, geography, customs, and flora. (...). The History of Japan (1727) [of which our copy is the translation] was for more than a century the chief source of Western knowledge of the country. It contains the first biography of Kaempfer, an account of his journey, a history and description of Japan and its fauna, a description of Nagasaki and Deshima; a report on two embassies to Edo with a description of the cities which were visited on the way; and six appendixes, on tea, Japanese paper, acupuncture, moxa, ambergris, and Japan's seclusion policy (...)." (DSB). SEE ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE CXXII.