PSALMANAZAR, GEORGE (C. 1679-1763). AN HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF FORMOSA, LONDON, FOR MAT. WOTTON, ABEL ROPER AND B. LINTOT, 1705, 8°, FIRST EDITION, folding engraved map (with small, clean tear), 16 engraved plates, one folding, and folding engraved table of the Formosan alphabet (some browning of margins), contemporary calf (covers detached).

細節

PSALMANAZAR, GEORGE (C. 1679-1763). AN HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF FORMOSA, LONDON, FOR MAT. WOTTON, ABEL ROPER AND B. LINTOT, 1705, 8°, FIRST EDITION, folding engraved map (with small, clean tear), 16 engraved plates, one folding, and folding engraved table of the Formosan alphabet (some browning of margins), contemporary calf (covers detached).

拍品專文

The literary impostor, George Psalmanazar was regarded by Samuel Johnson as "the best man he had ever known." Although a native of the South of France, he for a time disguised himself as an indigent Japanese Christian and later claimed Formosa as his birthplace -- though Formosan was, in fact, his own invented language and his description of the island was a work of fantasy.