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JEAN JOSEPH MARIE AMIOT (1718-1793) ET AL.
Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts; les moeurs, les usages, &c. des Chinois: par les missionnaires de Pekin. Paris: Nyon, 1776-1791. 15 volumes, 4° (252 x 194mm). Half titles in volumes I-II & IX-XV, two engraved portrait frontispieces of Emperor Quianlong and M. Amiot, 193 engraved plates, some folding, maps and tables. (Occasional light spotting and browning, a few volumes with light marginal staining, a few plates cropped, heavy browning to 8pp. of vol. VIII, lacking signature XIV/2v.) Contemporary Spanish marbled calf gilt, spine gilt in compartments, red and blue gilt lettering-pieces in the second and third (minor restoration, a few joints starting, lightly rubbed). Provenance: price in contemporary hand in vols. I and XV.
VERY RARE FIRST EDITION. AN ATTRACTIVE LARGE-MARGINED SET OF THIS MONUMENTAL SURVEY OF CHINESE LIFE IN THE 18TH CENTURY AS WITNESSED BY THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES. This work by missionaries including Cibot, Bourgeois, Poirot, Ko and Yang comprises translations of classic Chinese works of law, maxims and proverbs, as well as essays on Chinese linguistics, current affairs and scientific observation. Volume VII is a reprint of Amiot's Art militaire des Chinois (Paris, 1772), the first translation into a European language of the ancient Chinese military strategy, whilst volume XII, the 'Vie de Confucius', was more complete and accurate than any previous text on the subject.
Amiot, the main contributor, went to China in 1740 and soon won the confidence of the emperor Quianlong, remaining for the rest of his life in Beijing after the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773. Fluent in both Chinese and Tartar, his works were amongst the first to bring the philosophy and life of the East to the Western world, and his Dictionnaire tatare-mantchou-français (Paris, 1789) was the first to introduce these languages to Europe. Many of the engravings are based on Chinese designs sent by Amiot to Henri Bertin, minister in charge of Chinese affairs under Louis XVI. Only one other set containing all 15 volumes is recorded at auction by ABPC since 1975. (A sixteenth volume was published more than 20 years after vol. XV in Paris in 1814.) Cordier 54-56; Lust 96. (15)
Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts; les moeurs, les usages, &c. des Chinois: par les missionnaires de Pekin. Paris: Nyon, 1776-1791. 15 volumes, 4° (252 x 194mm). Half titles in volumes I-II & IX-XV, two engraved portrait frontispieces of Emperor Quianlong and M. Amiot, 193 engraved plates, some folding, maps and tables. (Occasional light spotting and browning, a few volumes with light marginal staining, a few plates cropped, heavy browning to 8pp. of vol. VIII, lacking signature XIV/2v.) Contemporary Spanish marbled calf gilt, spine gilt in compartments, red and blue gilt lettering-pieces in the second and third (minor restoration, a few joints starting, lightly rubbed). Provenance: price in contemporary hand in vols. I and XV.
VERY RARE FIRST EDITION. AN ATTRACTIVE LARGE-MARGINED SET OF THIS MONUMENTAL SURVEY OF CHINESE LIFE IN THE 18TH CENTURY AS WITNESSED BY THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES. This work by missionaries including Cibot, Bourgeois, Poirot, Ko and Yang comprises translations of classic Chinese works of law, maxims and proverbs, as well as essays on Chinese linguistics, current affairs and scientific observation. Volume VII is a reprint of Amiot's Art militaire des Chinois (Paris, 1772), the first translation into a European language of the ancient Chinese military strategy, whilst volume XII, the 'Vie de Confucius', was more complete and accurate than any previous text on the subject.
Amiot, the main contributor, went to China in 1740 and soon won the confidence of the emperor Quianlong, remaining for the rest of his life in Beijing after the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773. Fluent in both Chinese and Tartar, his works were amongst the first to bring the philosophy and life of the East to the Western world, and his Dictionnaire tatare-mantchou-français (Paris, 1789) was the first to introduce these languages to Europe. Many of the engravings are based on Chinese designs sent by Amiot to Henri Bertin, minister in charge of Chinese affairs under Louis XVI. Only one other set containing all 15 volumes is recorded at auction by ABPC since 1975. (A sixteenth volume was published more than 20 years after vol. XV in Paris in 1814.) Cordier 54-56; Lust 96. (15)
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