Forum Rare Books

The main source of early knowledge of the Pelew or Palau Islands in Micronesia, in Dutch translation

KEATE, George. Beschryving van de Pelew Eilanden ...
Rotterdam, Gerard Abraham Arrenberg, 1789. 4to. With 8 plates: 4 mixed technique (partly stipple-engraved) portraits, 1 large folding engraved map of the Palau Islands and western equatorial Pacific, and 3 folding engraved views. Contemporary boards. XXXII, 365, [1] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Charts & Maps China Mutiny, Piracy & Shipwrecks Pacific Islands Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages East Asia Travel & Voyages Pacific

Richly illustrated and influential 17th-century book on China

KIRCHER, Athanasius. Tooneel van China.
Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge and the widow of Elizaeus Weyerstraten, 1668. Folio. With engraved frontispiece, engraved author's portrait, 24 engraved plates (including 2 double-page maps and 1 folding plate) and 60 engraved illustrations in text (plus another copy on a separate leaf, without letterpress text, of the engraving on 2F3v). Including maps of China and Asia, traditional Chinese costumes, illustrations of the Chinese and the Mughal rulers in abundantly decorated rooms, linguistic illustrations, zoological illustrations, etc. Contemporary gold-tooled calf, later endpapers (re-cased). [12], 286, [10] pp. Full description

€ 8,000

Anthropology & Ethnography China Church History & Missions Iran / Persia Jesuits

Dutch edition of a detailed account of an important circumnavigation

LAPLACE, Cyrille Pière Théodore. Reis rondom de wereld door de zeeën van Indië en China; . . .
Zaltbommel, Johannes Noman and sons, 1834-1836. 7 volumes bound as 3. 8vo. Each volume with a lithographed title-page, each with a different topographic view, folding engraved map tracking Laplace's journey, 13 lithographed plates (7 folding). Near contemporary uniform blue-black half calf, gold- and blind-tooled spines. XXXVI, 511, [1]; [II], 328; [II], 272; [II], 288; IV, 272; [II], 262, [1], [1 blank]; IV, 323, [1] pp. Full description

€ 2,750

Anthropology & Ethnography Brazil Charts & Maps China Circumnavigation City Plans, Topography & Views India & Sri Lanka Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Latin America Malaysia Pacific Islands Philippines South America Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages East Asia Travel & Voyages Pacific Travel & Voyages South America Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Southern Asia

Important scientific and trade voyage around the world

LAPLACE, Cyrille Pierre Théodore. Voyage autour du monde par les mers de l'Inde et de Chine ... exécuté sur la corvette de l'état La Favorite pendant les années 1830, 1831 et 1832.
Paris, Imprimerie Royale (views volume: Arthus Bertrand; map volume: Dépôt-Générale de la Marine), 1833-1835. 4 text volumes (8vo), 1 views volume (folio) and 1 atlas volume (1mo, 66 x 51 cm). With 1 folding engraved map in the first text volume, 2 full-page maps and 10 maps on 9 double-page plates in the "atlas hydrographique", and 72 extraordinary aquatint plates (ca. 27 x 36 cm) in the "album historique", most of them with the blind-stamped image of the ship La Favorite (15 x 28 mm). Contemporary half dark green calf, gold-tooled spines. [4], XLI, 558, [2]; [4], 481, [1]; [4], 510, [2]; [4], 480; [4] pp. Full description

€ 69,500

Anthropology & Ethnography Brazil Charts & Maps China Circumnavigation City Plans, Topography & Views Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Latin America Pacific Islands Philippines South America Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages East Asia Travel & Voyages Pacific Travel & Voyages South America Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia

Archaeological account and artefacts from the Turfan area, China, with numerous plates

LE COQ, Albert von. Die buddhistische Spätantike in Mittelasien. Ergebnisse der Kgl. Preussischen Turfan-Expeditionen.
Berlin, Dietrich Reimer, 1922-1933 [facsimile: Graz, Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1973-1975]. 6 text volumes and 1 atlas. 35,5 x 26 cm; atlas 54 x 36,5 cm. With a total of 185 plates in the text volumes, 22 plates in the atlas volume, mostly in black and white, some in colour, and numerous illustrations in text. Uniform decorated brown cloth. 29; 62; 53; 29; 32; 89; 80 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Archaeology Art & Art History China Iran / Persia

Detailed eye-witness reports of a voyage around the world as it unfolded, 1847-1851

LORGE, Louis Anne Paul de Durfort Civrac, Comte de. [46 letters].
Chili, Macao, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Batavia, Ceylon, Calcutta, Delhi, etc., 1847-1851. 8vo & 4to. 46 autograph letters, mostly signed, written during a voyage around the world by the Comte de Lorge, to his father, the Duc de Lorge. Loose letters in clear plastic sleeves in a modern notebook. Full description

€ 9,500

Autographs & Letters Ceylon China Circumnavigation India & Sri Lanka Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Latin America Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages East Asia Travel & Voyages South America Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Southern Asia

The Jesuits in India and China: adapting to local practice

LUCINO, Luigi Maria. Esame, e difesa del decreto publicato in pudisceri da monsignor Carlo Tommaso di Tournonpatriarcha d'Antiochia, commissario, e visitatore apostolico, con Podesta do legato a letere delle Indie Orientali, Impero della Cina, e Isole adjacenti. Di poi Cardinale della S. R. Chiesa.
Rome, nella stamperis Vaticana, 1729. 4to. With with the title-page printed in red and black, showing an engraved printer's device, engraved initials and head- and tail-pieces, 3 full-page and one folding engraving, with the second and third coloured by hand. Contemporary parchment, spine lettered in gold, blue edges. LXIII, 492, [2] pp. Full description

€ 3,250

China India & Sri Lanka Jesuits

Maffei's account of the East and West Indies, together with his life of Ignatius of Loyola

MAFFEI, Giovanni Pietro. Historiarum Indicarum Libri XVI.
Antwerp, Martinus Nutius, 1605.
With: (2) [MAFFEI, Giovanni Pietro]. Ignatii Loiolae vita, postremo recognita.
Antwerp, Martinus Nutius, 1605. 2 works in 1 volume (the first in 2 parts). 8vo. Contemporary vellum, remains of ties. [72], 478, [2 blank]; 401, [7]; 152, [12] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

China Church History & Missions India & Sri Lanka Japan & Far East Jesuits Philippines Southeast Asia West Indies

A French translation of Maffei's renowned description of the East and West Indies

MAFFEI, Giovanni Pietro. L'Histoire des Indes Orientales et Occidentales ...
Paris, Robert de Ninville, 1665. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. Each volume with a (different) woodcut coat-of-arms of France and Navarre on the title-page. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges. [32], “353” [= 351], [1 blank]; [2], "292" [= 296], [24] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Brazil Caribbean Islands China Church History & Missions Iran / Persia Japan & Far East Latin America Religion (17th Century) South America Southeast Asia

French translation of Maffei's renowned description of the East and West Indies

MAFFEI, Giovanni Pietro. l'Histoire des Indes Orientales et Occidentales ...
Paris, Robert de Ninville, 1665. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. Contemporary vellum. [32], “353” [= 351], [1 blank]; [2], "292" [= 296], [24] pp. Full description