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Two journeys to China described by two pupils of Linnaeus

OSBECK, Peter & Olof TOREEN.
Dagbok öfwer en Ostindisk resa åren 1750, 1751, 1752. Med anmärkningar uti naturkunnigheten, främmande folkslags sprak, seder, hushållning m.m. jåmte 12 tabeller och afledne skepps-predikanten Torens bref.

With 12 numbered folding engraved plates depicting plants and fish.

With 12 numbered folding engraved plates depicting plants and fish.

With 12 numbered folding engraved plates depicting plants and fish.

With 12 numbered folding engraved plates depicting plants and fish.

With 12 numbered folding engraved plates depicting plants and fish.



Stockholm, Lor. Ludw. Grefing, 1757. 8vo. Contemporary half calf, yellow title label on gilt spine, red sprinkled edges. With 12 numbered folding engraved plates depicting plants and fish. (8), 376, (16) pp.

Original edition of two accounts of Swedish voyages to China and the East Indies, written by Peter (or Pehr) Osbeck (1723-1805), Swedish minister, botanist and explorer, and Olof Toreen. Osbeck's journal contains interesting observations on the languages, customs and domestic economy of the peoples in the area, but its main value lies in the accounts on foreign plants and fishes which are illustrated on the engravings.
The book starts with a preface by Osbeck, dated Stockholm, 25 April 1757, followed by Osbeck's journal of his voyage to China which occupies pp. 1-311. Page 312 contains a letter from Linnaeus to Osbeck. On pp. 313-376 is the account of Olaf Toreen's (d. 1753), 'En Ostindise Resa til Suratte, China...'  on his voyage to Suratte (India), China, etc. from the 1st of April 1750, to the 26th of June 1752 in a series of 7 letters to Doctor Linnaeus.
Osbeck was a pupil of Linnaeus, and he had already made journeys to the West Indies and South America as chaplain on board of several vessels of the Swedish East-Indian company before he embarked on the 'Prince Charles' - the first three-deck ship employed by Sweden in the East-Indies-trade - to set sail for China on 18 November 1750. Via the Cape of Good Hope (May 1751) and Java (July-August 1751), the ship reached China in August 1751.
Osbeck described his stay in China on pp. 112-265. The journey back to Sweden, where he arrived on 26 June 1752, is described on pp. 266-311. On the island of Java, Osbeck found, independently, the same orchid Rumphius had already found before him. He brought it back to his teacher Linnaeus in Sweden, who named the orchid 'Epidéndrum amábile'. Linnaeus gave the name of Osbeck to a tree of the family of the Melastomaceae.

Good copy.- (Some paper wear at leaf 4 and p. 1 sl. affecting text).
Lust 349-350 (Rostock, 1765 and London, 1771); Cordier, Sinica, 2097; Pritzel 6865; Cox I, p. 298; not in Nissen.

Related Subjects: Botany  China  Indochina  Indonesia  Natural History  Sweden  Travel & Voyages  Voyages 

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