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Dutch translation of an important work on Lapland, with 17 engraved plates by Jan Luyken

SCHEFFER, Johannes Gerhard.
Waarachtige en aen-merkens-waardige historie van Lapland: ... Met noch een kort bericht van den toestand der Finnen.
Amsterdam, Jan ten Hoorn, 1682. 4to. With engraved frontispiece and 16 engraved plates by Jan Luyken, and 1 folding engraved map. Contemporary vellum. [6], 99; 146; 73, [7] pp.
€ 3,500
First edition of the Dutch translation of a celebrated ethnographic monograph on Swedish Lapland by the German-born professor Johannes Gerhard Scheffer (1621-1679). Scheffer's account contains valuable information on the Lappish culture, with chapters on their ceremonies, houses, diet, clothing, trading customs, handicraft, entertainment, hunting, as well as marriage and death customs. "This history long remained the main source of information on Lapland" (Cox). It has become the liveliest, detailed and uncondescending early modern account of the far north and its population, now known as the Sami. The present Dutch edition was illustrated by the engraver Jan Luyken, one of the most famous illustrators of the Netherlands during the second half of the 17th century. The plates depict the daily life in the north, but also the worship of various idols, encounters with gnomes, etc.
Some plates with minor restorations, some occasional foxing and a few small marginal water stains on the last few leaves. Front cover slightly damaged. A very good copy. Alden & Landis 682/155; Klaversma & Hannema 1282 and 1283; cf. Cox I, p. 178.
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