NIEUHOF, Johan (1618-1672). Legatio Batavica ad... Lot 229
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NIEUHOF, Johan (1618-1672). Legatio Batavica ad magnum Tartariae chamum Sungteium, modernum Sinae
emperorm. Amsterdam: Van Meurs, 1668.
A copy in excellent condition, with clearly printed plates, of the first Latin edition of the account of Nieuhof's travels to China between 1655 and 1657, in the service of the VOC (Dutch East India Company), with the aim of convincing the Qing Emperor to open trade relations. The publisher Van Meurs commissioned almost 150 engravings based on Nieuhof's original sketches, illustrating the work with images of the Chinese people, architecture and infrastructure, cities and landscapes, flora and fauna. This important iconography of China influenced the European taste for chinoiserie in the late 17th and 18th centuries.
Folio, (306 x 200 mm). Engraved frontispiece, title-page with vignette depicting Prudence, 1 large folding map 'Carte du Voyage', 35 engraved double-page plates, numerous illustrations in the text, in very good internal condition (missing engraved portraits of the author and dedicatee as in almost all copies, probably never bound in). Contemporary binding in Dutch-style stiff vellum, manuscript title to spine. (1)
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