Travels through Asia
Rare first edition of the first French book ever published about Siam.
Paris, 1666.
BOURGES, Jacques de. Relation du voyage de Monseigneur l’évêque de Beryte Vicaire apostolique du royaume de la Cochinchine, Par la Turquie, la Perse, les Indes, &c. jusqu’au Royaume de Siam & autres lieux. Par M. de Bourges, Prêtre, Missionnaire Apostolique.
Paris, chez Denys Bechet, 1666.
8vo [179 x 113 mm], (1) bl.l., (6) ll., 1 folding map, 245 pp., (3) pp., (1) bl.l. Bound in contemporary brown granite-like calf, spine ribbed and decorated, mottled edges. Contemporary binding.
Rare first edition of the first French book ever published about Siam.
Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 827-828; Brunet, I 1179.
“The first contacts between France of Louis XIV and Siam of Phra Naraï go back to the years 1660s, when some vicar apostolic and some ecclesiastics of the young foreign missions of Paris came to Ayutthaya, the capital of the Kingdom of Siam. Jacques de Bourges belonged to the first group of missionaries which arrived at Ayutthaya in 1662. He is the author of the first French book ever published about Siam, the Relation du voyage de Monseigneur l’évêque de Beryte [...] jusqu’au Royaume de Siam, published in Paris in 1666. It is a traditional travel report that gives an account of the mainly ground journey into Siam (the adventure) and a systematic description of this Kingdom (the inventory).”
“Monseigneur Lambert de La Motte and the apostolic missionaries Jacques de Bourges and François Deydier embarked for Alexandrette in Marseille in November 1660. That’s where they began the journey which would take them through Aleppo, Baghdad, Basrah and Isphahan to Bandar Abbas. They would cross the Indian subcontinent up to Masulipatam on the Coromandel Coast.
After an extremely tiring journey of 21 months they arrived in Ayuthia, the capital of the Kingdom of Siam, in August 1662.
This memorable journey is well-known to us thanks to the Relation du voyage de Monseigneur l’évêque de Beryte Vicaire apostolique du royaume de la Cochinchine, Par la Turquie, la Perse, les Indes, &c. jusqu’au Royaume de Siam & autres lieux, par M. de Bourges (Denys Bechet, Paris 1666, republished in 1668 and 1683). Twenty years before the Siamese style came into vogue (in 1685-1688), the Relation of Jacques de Bourges gives us the first French report and description of Siam at the beginning of the reign of Somdet Phra Naraï, who will seek the friendship of Louis XIV.”
(De branche en branche. Etudes sur le XVIIe et le XVIIIe siècle français. Dirk Van der Cruysse).
THE PRESENT WORK IS ILLUSTRATED WITH A FOLDING MAP engraved by Du Val RETRACING THE ROUTE OF THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES FROM PARIS TO SIAM.
A WIDE-MARGINED COPY PRESERVED IN ITS CONTEMPORARY BINDING OF THIS INTERESTING TRAVEL REPORT OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE FOR THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIAM IN THE 17TH CENTURY.
No copy of this rare original edition is recorded in ABPC since 1989.
Price: € 11 500
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Rare relation of the Jesuit missions to Japan at the end of the 16th Century,
preserved in its original limp vellum.
FROES, Luis. Lettera annua del Giappone dell’anno MDXCVI. Scritta dal P. Luigi Frois, al R.P. Claudio Acquauiua Generale della Compagnia di Giesù. Tradotta in Italiano dal P. Francesco Mercati Romano della stessa Compagnia.
In Padova, Appresso Francesco Bolzetta, 1599.
Small 8vo [155 x 101 mm], 124 ff. Bound in contemporary limp vellum, handwritten title on the spine. Red morocco slipcase. Handwritten ex libris on title-page.
Rare edition of this letter addressed from Japan by the Jesuit missionary Froes to Father Acquaviva in 1596.
This remarkable account gives a detailed description of the progresses made by the Christian missions in Asia in the years 1595-1596, and of the state of the Church in Japan just before the persecutions.
Pages 82; not in Cordier.
Luis Froes (1528-1597) is a Portuguese Jesuit who was intended for the missions and who followed Father Barzeo on his trip to the Indies in 1548. After a one-year mission in Malacca, Froes came back to Goa and in 1563 he was sent to Japan : his evangelical successes followed him.
A very attractive copy of this work preserved in its contemporary limp vellum.
This book is not recorded in any French institution.
OCLC only lists 3 copies: at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, at the University of Maastricht and at the Universtity of Minnesota.
The only other copy to appear at auction in the last thirty years was sold for £ 7 800 on the 25th of June 1992 by Sotheby’s London, that is to say € 13 000 more than 15 years ago.
Price: € 25 000
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La Mottraye’s great travel through Europe, Asia and Africa,
illustrated in the first issue with William Hogarth’s engravings.
One of the rare copies printed on large-paper.
The Hague, 1727.
LA MOTTRAYE, Aubry de. Voyages du Sieur A. de La Motraye, en Europe, Asie et Afrique. Où l’on trouve une grande variété de recherches géographiques, historiques et politiques, sur l’Italie, la Grèce, la Turquie, la Tartarie, Crimée, & Nogaye, la Circassie, la Suède, la Laponie, etc… avec des remarques instructives sur les mœurs, coutumes, opinions &c. des peuples & des païs où l’Auteur a voyagé […]
La Haye, T. Johnson & J. Van Duren, 1727.
2 volumes folio [368 x 235 mm] of I/ (7) ll., 1 frontispiece, 472 pp., 23 pp., and 31 plates out of pagination including 6 folding plates and 10 on double-page; II/ 1 frontispiece, (3) ll., 496 pp., 39 pp., 18 plates including 7 on double-page and 2 maps on double page. Title-pages printed in black and red.
Bound in contemporary granite-like calf, double blind-stamped fillets on covers, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fleurons, red mottled edges.
First French edition of Aubry de la Mottraye’s important travel through Europe, Asia and Africa.
Chadenat 105 ; Blackmer 946.
Aubry de La Mottraye settled in Constantinople in 1698 to practise freely the Protestant religion. He had already visited Italia, Jaffa, Alexandria, Tripoli, Mahn Harbour, and Lisbon and had followed Tallard to England. He met Tekeli in Constantinople and travelled through Anatolia up to the Black Sea. He sailed to Malta and then towards Barcelona. La Mottraye stroke up a friendship with F.E. Fabrice, an agent of Charles XII towards 1711, and followed him to Bendery. Constant travels between Constantinople and Didymoteicho occupied him until 1714.
He left for Sweden with Fabrice and went up to Laponia.
« In his travels, La Mottraye focuses on the habits and customs and reveals many peculiar anecdotes about characters whose names became famous in history. »
Bibliographers emphasize the beauty of the illustrations due to William Hogarth’s talent, one of the most famous English artists from the 18th century.
The present work is illustrated in the first issue with 47 very fine engravings out of pagination drawn by William Hogarth, most of them being folding or double-page engravings, with 2 frontispieces and 4 maps.
Drawn with talent and originality, they represent with elegance and movement customs scenes, characters, costumes, and monuments from the countries visited by La Mottraye.
Hogarth shows here a very particular verve as « the first English painter to have an indisputable personality. »
« A peculiar work, sought-after for its 46 plates, almost all drawn by W. Hogarth, one of the most famous English artists from the 18th century. Besides it contains 4 maps. »
(Chadenat)
An exceptional copy printed on large-paper, especially wide-margined (height: 368 mm). An ordinary copy is approximately 315 mm high, that is to say 53 mm shorter than this one.
Price: € 15 000
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Tavernier’s six journeys, the collection of accounts in Persia,
Indies, Japan, Tonkin and Asia,
preserved in a beautiful 18th Century apple green morocco binding.
TAVERNIER, Jean-Baptiste. Les six voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes. Recueil de plusieurs Relations et Traitez singuliers & curieux […] qui n’ont point esté mis dans ses six premiers Voyages. Divisé en cinq parties. I. Une Relation du Japon ; II. Relation de ce qui s’est passé dans la Negociation des Deputes qui ont esté en Perse & aux Indes ;III. Observations sur le Commerce des Indes Orientales ; IV. Relation nouvelle & singulière du Royaume de Tonquin ; V. Histoire de la conduite des Hollandais en Asie. Avec la Relation de l’intérieur du Serrail du Grand Seigneur.
Suivant la Copie, imprimée à Paris (Hollande), 1692.
3 volumes 12mo[148 x 87 mm] bound in 18th Century apple green morocco, gilt borders and gold dots on covers, flat spine decorated with grotesques, inner gilt border, edges gilt.
A fine edition printed in Holland of Tavernier’s six journeys and of the “Recueil de plusieurs Relations” – of Japan, Persia, Indies, Tonkin and Asia.
Brunet, V, 681 ; Catalogue des livres de M. le baron de Rothschild, II, 1932 (pour l’édition de 1675 de la Relation du Serrail) ; Chadenat, 6139 (pour l’édition de 1679).
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689) travelled through every European country, and then he explored Turkey, Persia, India and Asia Minor. On his return from his sixth trip, he wrote his “Relations”.
The interesting illustration consists of 1 fine frontispiece, 1 portrait of the author engraved by Causé, 44 plates of which 37 are folded and 2 large folding maps of Tonkin and Japan Islands.
A handsome copy preserved in its beautiful 18th century apple green morocco, with the spines finely decorated with grotesques.
Seventeenth century editions of Tavernier’s travels bound in fine old morocco are very rare.
Price: € 16 500
