First edition of a splendidly illustrated 17th-century account of Asia, including Persia and Georgia, covering the mythology, religion, languages, potentates and topography of the regions. The first part covers the empire of the "Great Mogul" (Central Asia and northern India) and the second part (noted on the main title-page but with its own part-title) covers Persia and Georgia (the latter as appendix). The illustrations gave 17th-century Europeans a rare view of the Hindu gods and religious rites, portraits of the Asian potentates, Asian customs and clothing in general, a splendid double-page plate of the Mogul's court, views of several cities, and numerous elephants. The double-page maps include a nautical chart of the Caspian Sea. Translations into English and German followed the original Dutch edition within less than a decade.
Olfert Dapper (1636-1689) published his first book, describing the city of Amsterdam, in 1663, followed by a translation of Herodotus's descriptions of the entire world as it was known in classical times. His fascination with faraway lands then led to the works for which he is best known: a series of books describing the most exotic regions of the world. Although he himself never travelled, he gathered information from a wide variety of sources, producing the most comprehensive accounts of the regions in his day. His books were a great success, both in the Netherlands and abroad, and no doubt framed the contemporary European view of exotic civilizations.
With the green and white bookplate of the "Collectie Buijnsters-Smets" and a blue deaccession stamp ("Verwijderd uit de collectie (van de) R.L.") on the front paste-down. The binding shows signs of wear, the spine is slightly cracked, without affecting the integrity of the binding. With some offsetting of the engraved illustrations in the text, the margins of part 1 are very slightly foxed and/or browned, but it is otherwise internally fine and clean. Part 2 is foxed and slightly browned throughout and with a small tear in the foot margin of pages 9-10 of the description of Georgia in part 2. Otherwise in very good condition. Cat. NHSM, p. 219; Graesse II, p. 335; Lipperheide La 5; Tiele, Bibl. 299.