Voyage en Afrique et en Asie, principalement au Japon, pendant les années 1770-1779. Servant de suite au voyage de D. Sparmann; […] Traduit de Suédois, avec des notes du traducteur.

Paris: Fuchs, Libraire, 1794. Hardcover. See Description. First French Edition. 8vo. pp. xii, 532. (The preface - pp. v-viii - is bound in the rear between pp. 530 and 531). Bound in full period calf with gilt spine. Binding shows rubbing and wear but is still sturdy and attractive. Interior pages contain some minor wear, spotting and age-toning. Periodic corner stress marks and corner creases are present. Pages 281-88 reveal a small spot of worming in the lower margin. Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) was a Swedish botanist and a student of Carl Linnaeus. His travel log (first published in Swedish as "Resa uti Europa, Asia, Africa…" in four volumes, 8vo., Uppsala, 1788-93) recounts his botanical collecting voyages with the Dutch East India Company to South Africa, Java and Japan. Among other observations Thunberg describes the Hottentot (Khoikhoi) peoples of South Africa and mentions his visit to Nagasaki in Japan. The translator of the French edition claims that Thunberg’s verbose and detailed style makes an exact translation undesirable. Use was therefore made of Forster’s German abbreviation or abstract but several passages which Forster omitted are here preserved. The final section (pp. 405-450) contains excerpts related to Japan taken from J.G. Georgi’s "Voyage en Sibérie", including a description of Japanese paper-making. A Japanese-French vocabulary is included (pp. 451-486). [Cordier, Japonica, p. 447, Arnold Arboretum, p. 690; Gay 3151].