Details
AMIOT, Joseph Marie (1718-1793), and others. Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages, . des chinois: par les missionaires de Pekin. Paris: chez Nyon, 1776 [-1784].
Volumes 1-10 only, 4° (257 x 194 mm). Half-titles in vols. I-II and IX-X; engraved frontispiece portrait of Emperor Quianlong in first volume and 136 engraved plates (some folding), maps and tables. Contemporary French mottled calf, spines gilt (some wear to spine ends and at edges).
FIRST EDITION of the first ten volumes 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. Volume 10 contains on pp. 179-150: “Table générale des matières contenues dans les dix précédens volumes ...”
The series continues to volume 17, but complete sets are infrequently found on the market. Barbier III, 182; Brunet 3, 1596; Cordier I, 54-55; Lust 96 (vols. 1-16 only); Streit VII: 3419n (pp. 339-341). See Quérard vol. 1, p. 52.
Volumes 1-10 only, 4° (257 x 194 mm). Half-titles in vols. I-II and IX-X; engraved frontispiece portrait of Emperor Quianlong in first volume and 136 engraved plates (some folding), maps and tables. Contemporary French mottled calf, spines gilt (some wear to spine ends and at edges).
FIRST EDITION of the first ten volumes 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. Volume 10 contains on pp. 179-150: “Table générale des matières contenues dans les dix précédens volumes ...”
The series continues to volume 17, but complete sets are infrequently found on the market. Barbier III, 182; Brunet 3, 1596; Cordier I, 54-55; Lust 96 (vols. 1-16 only); Streit VII: 3419n (pp. 339-341). See Quérard vol. 1, p. 52.