1729 KAEMPFER, E. - Histoire Naturelle, Civile, Et Ecclésiastique..'

First French edition, published by P. Gosse, J. Neaulme and B. Lakeman. The basic work on Japan from the second half of the 17th century when it was still forbidden for foreigners to enter the country.

The beautiful copper engravings show 45 maps, plans, views, temples, pictures of gods, plants and animals and also some examples of Japanese writing. At the end some special treatises are added on the Japanese tea and tea plant on Japanese paper-making and the paper-tree, and Japanese medicine, especially on the Japanese moxa or acupuncture.

A fine copy with broad margins.

Due to Kaempfer's presence, Japan learned many aspects of the scientific and technological revolution occurring in Europe at that time, helping the country build up the beginnings of a theoretical and technological scientific base, which helped to explain Japan's success in its radical and speedy modernization following the opening of the country to foreign trade in 1854.
Rangaku, literally "Dutch Learning", and by extension, "Western learning") Japan developed a body of knowledge through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima.

Born in Westphalia in 1651, Kaempfer traveled throughout the Near and Far East before settling in Japan as a physician to the trading settlement of the Dutch East India Company at Nagasaki. During his two years' residence, he made two extensive trips around Japan in 1691 and 1692, collecting, according to the British historian Boxer, 'an astonishing amount of valuable and accurate information'. 

He also learned all he could from the few Japanese who came to Deshima for instruction in the European sciences. 

To these observations, Kaempfer added details he had gathered from a wide reading of travelers' accounts and the reports of previous trading delegations. The result was the first scholarly study of Tokugawa Japan in the West. This work greatly influenced the European view of Japan throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, serving as a reference for various works ranging from encyclopedias to the libretto of The Mikado. 

Kaempfer's work remains one of the most valuable sources for historians of the Tokugawa period. The narrative describes what no Japanese was permitted to record (the details of the shogun's castle, for example) and what no Japanese thought worthy of recording (the minutiae of everyday life).

• More items relating to the Dutch in Japan and Rangaku

Reference: Landwehr VOC 532: Tiele Nederl.Bibl. 585. Brunet III, 638; Cordier (Japonica), 416; Cox I, p. 332-333; DSB VII, 204-5; Jones Checklist, 433; Nordenskiöld 514; Quérard IV, p. 282; Wroth 90 (map).