China
BUDDHISM. Saddharmasmrtyupasthanasutra ("Sutra of Right Mindfulness").Huzhou : [c.1250]
A remarkable surviving fascicle from a famous early Chinese edition of the Buddhist canon, printed during the Song dynasty at the Yuanjue (later Zifu) temple in Huzhou. The respect given to Buddhists texts has ensured the institutional survival of a couple of near-complete Yuanjue sets, but any examples of Chinese printing of this age are...Learn More
HAYTON, Prince of Corycus. Liber historiarum partium orientis, sive passagium terrae sanctae, Haythono, Ordinis Praemonstratensis, authore, scriptuis anno Redemptoris nostri M. CCC.Hagenau : 1529
First edition in Latin of this account of Asia and the Middle East, which informed European understanding of the Mongols for several hundred years. Prince Hayton, an exiled member of the Armenian royal family, dictated his account in 1307 to convince Pope Clement V to launch a new crusade.
Born around 1240, Hayton arrived at the papal court...Learn More
GONZALES DE MENDOZA, Juan. Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China,Rome : 1585
First edition of the first major European survey of China, featuring the first Chinese characters printed in a European workshop. Mendoza reveals that printing and firearms were invented in China and had been in use for hundreds of years before reaching Europe. This is an unrecorded variant, with uncorrected title page and prelims.
Arriving...Learn More
CARVAGLIO, Valentin. Lettera della Cina dell'anno 1601.Rome : 1603
First edition of this letter reporting a landmark in Sino-Western relations: Matteo Ricci's successful 1600-01 embassy to Beijing. Ricci entered the imperial capital on 24 January 1601, becoming the first Westerner to receive this high honour, presented gifts to the court, and received the emperor's leave to remain and preach Catholicism. This...Learn More
CONFUCIAN CLASSICS - ZHANG, Da, and others. Wujing tu ("Illustrations of the Five Classics").Lujiang, China : [1614]
First edition of this visual and textual guide to the Five Confucian Classics - one of the world's oldest and most enduring textual canons - through the lenses of philosophy, geography, and science. We have traced a single copy at Kyoto University, with none traced at auction.
Until the early 20th century, the Five Confucian Classics - the...Learn More
DEFOE, Daniel. The Consolidator: or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon.London : 1705
First edition of Defoe's early political allegory, his major contribution to early modern lunar literature, and a forerunner of Enlightenment sinophilia.
By 1705, Defoe was busy redefining the role of the journalist (with his thrice-weekly Review) and that of the spy (developing intelligence networks on behalf of Robert Harley). This...Learn More
YANG, Lurong. San fan jishi benmo ("Historical Events of the Period of the Three Princes in Their Entirety").[China : c.1717]
First edition, 18th-century printing, of this valuable work of Chinese historiography chronicling the short-lived Southern Ming dynasty. After the Manchu invasion, Ming loyalists retreated south and mounted four decades of opposition to the Qing dynasty. Though unmarked as such, this copy is from the library of the Dutch diplomat and Sinologist...Learn More
DU HALDE, Jean Baptiste. Description geographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise.Paris : 1735
First edition of this cornerstone of any China library. "Historically, this work must be regarded as monumental. Its strength lies in the vast amount and variety of interesting details, which must have given its readers an impression of the magnificence of the Chinese empire" (Löwendahl).
Du Halde (1674-1743), a Jesuit, compiled...Learn More
CONFUCIANISM - DENG, Tui'an (comp.). Zengding si shu buzhu fukao beizhi ("The Four Books of Confucianism, with Extended Commentaries").[Likely Jiangnan] : [c.1737]
One of the Chinese books acquired by the bibliophile and antiquarian Sir Thomas Phillipps for his famous library at Middle Hill. Phillipps bought at some of the major mid-19th-century London auctions of China-related material, including the Macartney (1851) and Staunton (1860) sales, and likely acquired this copy as part of a lot of miscellaneous...Learn More
TIBET - ORAZIO DELLA PENNA, Francesco; HERRERO, Antonio Maria (trans.). Representacion hecha por el r. procurador general de religiosos menores Capuchinos, a la Sagrada Congregacion de Propaganda Fide, sobre el estado actual de la mission del Thibet.Madrid : 1744
First edition in Spanish, expanded from the equally rare Italian edition of 1738, from the library of the distinguished historian-collector Sir Charles Ralph Boxer. Reporting on the 18th-century Capuchin missions to Tibet, this text records some of the earliest European impressions of Tibet's cosmopolitan society and religious...Learn More
MOSHEIM, John Laurence de. Authentick Memoirs of the Christian Church in China:London : 1750
First edition in English of this survey of the Chinese Rites Controversy and other religious squabbles within the Jesuit movement in the 17th century. Mosheim, a committed Lutheran, attacks the weakness of the papacy and Catholic concessions to elements of Chinese popular religion.
Mosheim's tract was published in German in 1748 and...Learn More
PERCY, Thomas. Miscellaneous Pieces Relating to the Chinese.London : 1762
First edition, including the first appearance of the author's "Dissertation on the Language and Characters of the Chinese", the ideas of which fed into his monumental Reliques of Ancient English Poetry published three years later. "The origins and development of British Romantic Sinology in Percy's Chinese writings is closely associated with the...Learn More
GOUDAR, Ange. The Chinese Spy; or, Emissary from the Court of Pekin, Commissioned to Examine into the Present State of Europe.London : 1765
First edition in English, the second overall, of this fictional satire of European life presented in the form of hundreds of letters written between imaginary Chinese diplomats and officials. The work was first published the same year in French as L'Espion Chinois, ou l'Envoyé Secret de la Cour de Pékin. Copies of this translation are scarce in...Learn More
CLERC, Nicolas-Gabriel. Yu le Grand et Confucius, Histoire Chinoise ("Yu the Great and Confucius - Chinese History").Soissons : 1769
First edition of this physiocratic work representative of the turn towards Confucianism in 18th-century French intellectual circles. The author saw China's legendary emperor Yu as a paragon of good governance who Europe would do well to emulate.
Nicolas-Gabriel Clerc (1726-1798) was a physician, historian, and tutor to the Grand Duke of...Learn More
PORTUGUESE TRADE WITH CHINA. Condiçoens com que se estabelece, por permissam de S. Magestade, o fundo, e negociaçam da nau Nossa Senhora da Penha de França, S. Francisco de Paula, e Almas, de que sam proprietarios, e directores Joaquim Antonio Alberto, Florencio Teixeira de Azevedo,Lisbon : 1770
First edition of this seemingly unrecorded Portuguese prospectus for a new maritime shipping concern operating between Lisbon, Brazil and China, issued amidst growing European challenges to Portugal's commercial position and one year before the Qing empire significantly loosened restrictions on overseas traders in Canton.
The document...Learn More
BUDDHISM. Xian jie qian fo hao ("One Thousand Buddhas from the Bhadrakalpa Sutra").[Likely Beijing : 1774]
First edition of this unusual quintilingual work exhibiting the artistic skill of Chinese woodblock carvers. Compiled by the personal Buddhist tutor to the Qianlong emperor - China's Louis XIV - it lists slightly over 1,000 buddhas destined to appear in the present Buddhist aeon. We have traced just three institutional copies.
Print was a...Learn More
CONFUCIUS - HELMAN, Isidore Stanislaus Henri. Abrégé historique des principaux traits de la vie de Confucius célèbre philosophe chinois.Paris : [c..1785]
First edition, one of an unstated number of large paper copies, originally priced 18 livres and very much larger than the 12-livre quarto copies usually seen. "These hagiographic depictions show the sage as a semi-divine being, chronicling significant events of his life and works, from conception to death, and later rituals in his honour" (China...Learn More
STAUNTON, George. An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China;London : 1798
Second octavo edition, extra-illustrated with a first edition supplement of plates and maps issued by a rival London publisher in 1797. The Macartney mission was a pivotal point in Britain's unfolding encounter with China, revealing to Western eyes the power of the Qing court and the peripheral position of foreign powers in the imperial...Learn More
STAUNTON, George. An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China...London : 1798
Second, corrected edition of the official account of the first official British Embassy to China, headed by George, Earl Macartney; the first edition was published the previous year. The failed embassy marked a historic missed opportunity in the relationship between China and the Western powers.
Macartney was dispatched to Peking in 1792...Learn More
CONFUCIANISM. The Four Books: Parallel Chinese-Manchu Version.Beijing : [c.1830]
A rare early bilingual edition of the four canonical works at the heart of Confucianism: the Analects, Mencius, Great Learning, and Doctrine of the Mean. This translation, sponsored by the munificent Qianlong emperor - China's Louis XIV - was thought to surpass the work of all previous exegetes. The present example was one of several undated...Learn More
