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ALVAREZ SEMEDO (1568-1658)
The History of the great and renowned monarchy of China... Lately written in Italian [sic.] by ... Semedo, a Portughess, after he had resided twenty two yeares at the court, and other famous cities of the kingdom... To which is added the History of the late invasion and conquest of that flourishing kingdom by the Tartars. With an exact account of thee other affairs of China till these present times. London: printed by E. Tyler for John Crook, 1655. 2 parts in one volume, 2° (288 x 183mm). 2 engraved portraits, 2 maps, one folding, 1 plate. (Nn1 torn from lower margin into text, general title slightly soiled.) Contemporary speckled calf, spine in six compartments with raised bands, 18th-century brown morocco lettering piece (extremities scuffed, spine chipped at head and foot). Provenance: Gilbt. Wallis (signature); Joseph Ottolenghe (1711-1775, ink stamp on title, marginalia).
FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, WITH AN INTERESTING PROVENANCE. Alvarez Semedo (or Semmedo) served as Portuguese Procurado General for China, and the first part of the present work, first published in Madrid in 1642, includes much valuable material. Much of the information is derived from first-hand observation and remarkably free from the Western prejudice that was to become so prevalent in later works. The second part is based on Martino Martini's De Bello Tartarico Historia (1654) - the story of the Manchu conquest of China, a work that was at the time was considered the best general description of China. This copy is from the library of Joseph Solomon Ottolenghe. Ottolenghe was born Giuseppe Salomone Ottolenghi i Casale Monferratto in Italy in 1711, he was invited to England by his uncle and spent some time in Exeter gaol as a debtor and converted from Judaism to English Protestantism. He emigrated to Savannah, Georgia in 1751, initially to work as a missionary amongst the African American population, but subsequently he was appointed as superintendent off the important local silk industry. He published a treatise on the breeding of silk worms as well as serving as a member of the colony's governing Commons House from 1761-1765. Cordier Sinica I,25; Lust 72; Wing S-2490.
The History of the great and renowned monarchy of China... Lately written in Italian [sic.] by ... Semedo, a Portughess, after he had resided twenty two yeares at the court, and other famous cities of the kingdom... To which is added the History of the late invasion and conquest of that flourishing kingdom by the Tartars. With an exact account of thee other affairs of China till these present times. London: printed by E. Tyler for John Crook, 1655. 2 parts in one volume, 2° (288 x 183mm). 2 engraved portraits, 2 maps, one folding, 1 plate. (Nn1 torn from lower margin into text, general title slightly soiled.) Contemporary speckled calf, spine in six compartments with raised bands, 18th-century brown morocco lettering piece (extremities scuffed, spine chipped at head and foot). Provenance: Gilbt. Wallis (signature); Joseph Ottolenghe (1711-1775, ink stamp on title, marginalia).
FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, WITH AN INTERESTING PROVENANCE. Alvarez Semedo (or Semmedo) served as Portuguese Procurado General for China, and the first part of the present work, first published in Madrid in 1642, includes much valuable material. Much of the information is derived from first-hand observation and remarkably free from the Western prejudice that was to become so prevalent in later works. The second part is based on Martino Martini's De Bello Tartarico Historia (1654) - the story of the Manchu conquest of China, a work that was at the time was considered the best general description of China. This copy is from the library of Joseph Solomon Ottolenghe. Ottolenghe was born Giuseppe Salomone Ottolenghi i Casale Monferratto in Italy in 1711, he was invited to England by his uncle and spent some time in Exeter gaol as a debtor and converted from Judaism to English Protestantism. He emigrated to Savannah, Georgia in 1751, initially to work as a missionary amongst the African American population, but subsequently he was appointed as superintendent off the important local silk industry. He published a treatise on the breeding of silk worms as well as serving as a member of the colony's governing Commons House from 1761-1765. Cordier Sinica I,25; Lust 72; Wing S-2490.
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