1680 MONTANUS, A. - Ambassades mémorables de la Compagnie des Indes orientales des Provinces Unies vers les empereurs du Japon.

First edition in French of this important work on Japan, a work whose illustrations "represent a high-water mark in book illustrations of the 17th century" (Lach).
Designed to complement his similar work on China, this work was compiled by Montanus from records of Jesuit missions to Japan in 1649 and 1661, and published by Jan Van Meurs for the Dutch East India Company.

Printed by J.van Meurs in Amsterdam in 1680. Illustrated with one folding map, 70 text engravings, 21 double-page engravings, 4 folding engraved views of Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo and Kagoshima, with captions in Dutch and French.
This French edition is the only edition including a five page description of Taiwan and a double page illustration of La Ville et Le Château de Zélandia dans lîle de Tayovan .

The work primarily concentrates on providing accounts of Japanese politics, culture, religion, and military affairs. In addition, Montanus gives descriptions of the various western attempts to make contact with Japan: these naturally concentrate on the VOC (or Dutch East-India Company) embassies. The account of the Dutch 'Blokovius-Frisium embassy' comes from previously unpublished material, and other VOC embassies described include those of Zacharias Wagenaer in 1657 and Henry Indyk in 1661. Topographical information is wide ranging (for the time) and includes Montanus' descriptions of the towns of Nagasaki, Hirado, Osaka, Sakai, Kyoto, Shizuoka, and Edo, as well as the mysterious 'boiling waters of Singok'. The sociology of Japan is also described in some detail, with accounts of Japanese customs (bath-houses, wrestling, gardens) endeavors (whaling, wine-making), and mores (including crime and punishment with accounts of murder, the burning of widows, blood-baths, and various tortures).

The large folding map with repair of split, several pages slightly stained mainly in the margins. The plates are all very good and dark impressions. All together an attractive copy.

Reference: Cordier, BJ 385; Landwehr, VOC 525; Laures 526; The Authentic Story of Taiwan,pp.66,67.

Arnoldus Montanus (c.1625-1683)

• 1669, Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen der Oost-Indische Maetschappy in ‘t Vereenigde Nederland, aen de Kaisaren van Japan: embassies of the Dutch East India Company to the Emperors of Japan, drawn from the writings and travel notes of the envoys. French translation: Ambassades mémorables (1680).
• 1670, Atlas Japannensis: the English edition, translated and adorned with more than a hundred sculptures by John Ogilby (London: Thomas Johnson). One dealer describes a copy with 25 copper-engraved plates, including a map of Japan, and 70 engraved illustrations in the text.
• 1671, De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld: of Beschryving van America en ‘t Zuid-Land: his most famous book, published by Jacob van Meurs. It became a standard work in Europe and was widely read for many years. It contains what is arguably the first view of New York City (New Amsterdam). A German translation, Die Unbekante Neue Welt, followed in 1673. Ogilby’s America (1671) used many of the same plates.
• 1671, Remarkable Addresses in Two Embassies: the English edition, printed by Ogilby, on the Dutch embassies to China, with a geographical description of the empire and its fifteen provinces. This and his Japan book are among the earliest known descriptions of China and Japan.