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Asia

Results 1 - 22 (of 22)

HETOUN of KORIKOS / FALCON, N. (tr.) / MOLTHERUS, M. (ed.).

Haguenau, per Iohan Sec[erius], 1529.

Liber historiarum partium Orientis, sive Passagium Terrae Sanctae, Haythono, ordinis Praemonstratensis, authore, scriptus anno redemptoris nostri M. CCC.

First Latin edition and an internally excellent copy of this account of Asia and the Middle East, which along with Polo, formed one of the few eyewitness sources for Asia from the Middle Ages: According to Lach, in its French redaction (Fleur des histories d’Orient), it formed an important source.....

Price: $6,850.00

POLO, Marco.

Paris, Jehan Longis, 1556.

La Description Geographique des provinces & villes plus fameuses de l’Inde Orientale.

Rare first French edition of the work considered “the first to give anything approaching a correct and detailed account of China and the Far East” (PMM), and perhaps the most influential travel book of all time. This first appearance in French should possibly be linked to topical interest in the.....

Price: $95,000.00

CRUZ, Gaspar da.

Evora, Em casa de Andre de Burgos, 1569 [title] / 1570 [colophon].

Tractado em que se co[n]tam muito por este[n]so as cousas da China, co[m] suas particularidades, [e] assi do reyno dormuz.

Very rare first edition of this eyewitness account: “the first European book devoted exclusively to China” (Lach, I.1, p. 330). This highly important work, the first printed book published in the West on the subject, served as the primary source on China for European authors and their readers - most.....

Price: $285,000.00

[DIAZ, Pedro].

Paris, Jean Dallier, 1571.

Nouveaux Advertissemens trescertains, venus du paÿs des Indes Meridionales: Contenans la conversion de trois grans Roys infidelles, de la secte de Mahommet, convertis & baptisez, avec tous leurs subjects:.

Very rare first edition of this account of the conversion of three Muslim kings to Christianity in the East Indies, and apparently representing a sort of semi-fictionalized popular digest based on three genuine Jesuit relations. The present work is notable for its account of early activities on Salsette Island, the...

Price: $5,500.00

GONZALEZ DE MENDOZA, Juan.

Venice, Andrea Muschio, 1586.

Dell’ historia della China.

Rare first Venetian edition (appearing in the same year that the first Italian-language edition was published in Rome) of the Spanish Augustinian Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza’s (1545-1618) groundbreaking treatise on China, a work considered “the most comprehensive and popular book on Ming China to appear in Europe” (Lach, I.ii, p......

Price: $3,500.00

GONZALEZ DE MENDOZA, Juan.

Paris, Jeremie Perier, 1588.

Histoire du grand royaume de la Chine.

Rare first French edition – here in a magnificent, contemporary Parisian binding – of the Spanish Augustinian Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza’s (1545-1618) groundbreaking treatise on China, a work considered “the most comprehensive and popular book on Ming China to appear in Europe” (Lach, I.ii, p. 330). Though substantially based on.....

Price: $28,500.00

GUERREIRO, Fernao.

Evora, Manoel de Lyra, 1603.

Relaçam annual das cosas que fizeram os padres da Companhia de Iesus na India, & Japão nos annos de 600. & 601, & do processo da conversão…tirada das cartas geraes que de la vierão pello padre Fernão Guerreiro.

Rare first edition and the first and rarest of this series of Portuguese-language reports from missions overseas, with a decided emphasis on Asia. Separately issued in 5 publications over a period of 8 years, the first volume appeared in 1603 and the last concluded in 1611. Because the individual volumes...

Price: $22,000.00

JUAN DE PERSIA.

Valladolid, Juan de Bostillo, 1604.

Relaciones de Don Juan de Persia.

First edition of a rare and enigmatic text with its origins in a Persian-language travel diary of Uruch Beg Bayat (1560-1605), a nobleman and secretary in the delegation sent to Europe in 1599 by the Safavid ruler Shah ‘Abbas I at the urging of Sir Anthony Sherley (1565-1635), whose own...

Price: $28,500.00

CHINA.

PANTOJA, Diego de /ALBERTINUS, Aegidius (tr.).

Munich, Adam Berg, 1608.

Histori und eigentliche beschreibung erstlich was gestalt vermittelst sonderbarer Huelff und Schickung deß Allmaechtigen dann auch der Ehrwuerdigen Vaeter der Societet IESU.

Rare first German edition of this influential Jesuit letterbook from China describing Matteo Ricci’s acceptance at the court of Peking and marking a shift in European perceptions of China from “a view of China as seen from Macao to a view of China from within.” (de Paula Nogueira, p. 426).....

Price: $14,000.00

PLAUTIUS, Caspar.

[Linz], 1621.

Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio. Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis…authore Honorio Philopono.

Scarce first edition and an attractive copy, bound in what must be a presentation binding with the image of Saint Benedict stamped on the front cover and the arms of the author stamped on the back cover. The work is one of the more fanciful illustrated chronicles devoted to the...

Price: $28,500.00

JAPAN.

MENDES PINTO, Ferdinand / tr. FIGUIER, Bernard.

Paris, 1628.

Les Voyages Avantageux.

Rare first French edition of the earliest written eyewitness account of Japan, by the adventurer, pirate, missionary and mercenary who was among the first Europeans to visit that country. In 1537 Mendes Pinto (1509?-1583) began a 21-year odyssey to the East. Although his reliability has been questioned almost since the...

Price: $12,500.00

RHODES, Alexandre de.

Paris, Sebastien et Gabriel Cramoisy, 1652.

Relation des progrez de la foy au royaume de la cochinchine vers les derniers quartiers du levant.

First French edition of this first-hand account of 17th-century Vietnam (first Italian ed. 1650), which played an important role in fostering French interest in the region. Rhodes, who earned the favorable opinion of Louis XIV, is often heralded as the founder of Vietnamese Christianity, and remembered for his important dictionary...

Price: $10,500.00

SACCANO, Metello.

Paris, 1653.

Relation des Progrez de la Foy au Royaume de la Cochinchine és années 1646. & 1647. Envoiée au R.P. Général de la Compagnie de Jésus.

Rare first and only edition of two Jesuit letters from the province of Cochin-China, written in the years immediately following the expulsion of the Jesuit’s most powerful Southeast Asian operative, Alexander de Rhodes. Alexander Rhodes, ‘Apostle of Vietnam’ (Lach and Van Kley III: 1266) unfortunately attracted the enmity of the.....

Price: $6,500.00

SANSOVINO, Francesco.

Venice, Sebastian Combi & Giovanni La Noze, 1654.

Historia Universale dell'Origine Guerre, et Imperio de Turchi con le vite de tutti gl'imperatori ottomanni dal Maiolini Bisaccioni.

Stunning copy of this "important and influential history of the Ottoman Empire, based on an important collection of source material, which includes Leonard of Chios letter on the fall of Constantinople, Spandugino's account of Ottoman life and manners, and the accounts of Giovio, Menavino, Barletius and others.- Atabey 1088 The...

Price: $4,500.00

INDIA.

FREIRE DE ANDRADA, Jacinto / tr. WYCHE, Peter.

London, Henry Herringman, 1664.

The Life of Dom John de Castro, the Fourth Vice-Roy of India ... Containing also a particular relation of the most famous siege of Dio.

First edition in English, first issue, of the most famous biography in the Portuguese language. D. João de Castro (b. 1500, Lisbon) was a sailor, soldier, scientist and cartographer. At an early age he became a brilliant humanist, studying mathematics under Pedro Núñez. After fighting at Tangiers and Tunis, he.....

Price: $8,000.00

BARTOLI, Daniello.

Rome, Varese, 1660 1663 1667.

Dell Istoria della Compagnia di Giesu. L'Asia descritta dal P. Daniello Bartoli della medesima Compagnia. Parte Prima; Il Giappone. Seconda Parte dell'Asia; La Cina. Terza Parte dell'Asia.

The very rare third, enlarged, and best edition of Bartoli's L'Asia descritta. This work was intended to cover the Jesuit experience in the Far East, including Japan and China since the Order's first arrival there in the mid-sixteenth century. The volume on China appeared just before Kircher's China illustrata, and...

Price: $18,500.00

[FERMANEL DE FAVERY, Luc].

Paris, Pierre le Petit, 1674.

Relation des Missions des Evesques Fran's aux Royaumes de Siam, de la Cochinchine, de Camboye, & du Tonkin, &c. Divise' en quarter parties.

Rare first edition of this account of the state of Christianity in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam by rivals of the Jesuits. The Soci' des Missions Etrang's, a new apostolic missionary group established in Paris in 1660, was as a society of secular priests who devoted their lives to foreign missions but...

Price: $1,850.00

[Siam].

Toulouse, Chez Jean Boude, [1686].

Relation de ce qui s'est passé a l'audience des Mandarins.

Extremely rare first and only edition of this detailed popular newsletter concerning the contemporary reception of three Siamese ambassadors in Paris in September of 1686. The report gives a full description of their entrance, their itinerary, and the names and qualities of the individual ambassadors – whose 9-month stay in...

Price: $3,850.00

KOSA PAN, OK-LUANG KANLAYA RATCHAMAITRI, & OK-KHUN SISAWAN WACHA.

[SIAMESE AMBASSADORS TO FRANCE].

Paris, Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy, 1687.

Harangue faite a Sa Majesté par les Ambassadeurs du Roy de Siam Le Mardi 14. Janvier 1687, à leur Audience de Congé.

Extremely rare first edition of this ephemeral pamphlet documenting the royal audience of the Siamese embassy to France in 1686/7. The arrival of three Siamese ambassadors in northern France in the summer of 1686 caused a great deal of consternation in the popular sphere: illustrations of the embassy were frequently...

Price: $2,250.00

LAGRANGE, Louis de Chancel de.

[France], s.n., [1743].

Le premier volume des voyages curieux faits dans diverses provinces, de France, dEspagne, de Flandres et de Loraine lespace de cinquante ans par mess.re Louis de Chancel de Lagrange ... escrit de sa propre main.

Unpublished autograph manuscript by the French nobleman and traveller Louis de Chancel de Lagrange (1678-1747) documenting his extraordinary world travels between 1692 and 1704. Lagrange provides an eyewitness account of the groundbreaking 1698-1700 trading expedition to Canton made by the frigate L’Amphitrite, considered the “the first voyage of the French.....

Price: $60,000.00

PHILIPPINES.

DRAPER, Sir WILLIAM. Col.

London, J. Dodsley, 1764.

Draper's answer to the Spanish Arguments, claiming the Galeon, and refusing payment of the ransom bills, for preserving Manila from pillage and destruction; in a letter addressed to the Earl of Halifax.

Scare first edition of this document relating to the British occupation of Manila during the Anglo-Spanish War of 1762-3, and an interesting case of international law. In September of 1762, under the command of Draper and Cornish, a British fleet of 13 ships containing over 6000 men attacked Manila and...

Price: $2,250.00

[MARBAULT].

Amsterdam, n.p., 1777.

Essai sur le Commerce de Russie. Avec L’Histoire de ses Découvertes.

First edition of one of the first French works on commerce in Russia, including a noteworthy early map of Alaska. “Extremely detailed and worth studying” (Lada-Mocarski). Describing Russia’s contemporary situation, government, and both domestic and international trade, the book includes tables of all exports—from caviar to gingerbread—and “comptes simulés”—sample receipts.....

Price: $3,300.00

Results 1 - 22 (of 22)