Amoenitatum exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum. Fasciculi V. Quibus continentur variae relationes, observationes & descriptiones rerum Persicarum & ulterioris Asiae, multâ attentione, in peregrinationibus per universum orientem, collectae by Kaempfer, Engelbert - 1712

Lemgo: Typis & impensis Henrici Wilhelmi Meyeri, aulae Lippiacae typographi, 1712. First Edition. Frontispiece, 9 [of 16] folding plates, 73 copper or wood engraved illustrations in text (most full page). Title page printed in red and black. 9 ff., 912 pp., [16] ff. [index, terminal leaf blank]. 1 vols. Small 4to. Late nineteenth century half brown morocco. Lacking dedication leaf with portrait and leaf Qqqq4 (text p. 679/illustration p. 680). First Edition. Frontispiece, 9 [of 16] folding plates, 73 copper or wood engraved illustrations in text (most full page). Title page printed in red and black. 9 ff., 912 pp., [16] ff. [index, terminal leaf blank]. 1 vols. Small 4to. Kaempfer's Asian Travels. The great work of traveller and scientist Kaempfer, physician to the Dutch East India Company, whose scientific specimens Sir Hans Sloane bought, together with the manuscript History of Japan, published in English in 1727. Notable for its description of the electric eel, acupuncture, and moxibustion. Kaempfer's systematic description of tea (as well as his other work on Japanese plants) was praised by Linnaeus, who adopted Kaempfer's nomenclature.
Despite this defects noted, an attractive copy of an uncommon work. Wellcome III, p. 376; Brunet III: 636; Hunt 427; Nissen 1018; Garrison-Morton 6374.11; cf. Exotic Pleasures, Fascicle III, Curious Scientific and Medical Observations by Englebert Kaempfer. Translated with an introduction and commentary by Robert W. Carrubba, Southern Illinois University Press, 1996