First edition of a missionary history of India, based not only on the works of Goueva, Geddes, Bernier and Tavernier, but also on the manuscripts of the Lutheran missionary Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (1682 -1719), whose Danish mission is described on pp. 536-566. It includes an account of the trial and execution of a King of Ormuz for sodomy, "un peché infame fort connu à Rome aussi-bien qu'en Orient" (p. 340), and a defence of Islam against the common charge of being a religion established and maintained through war and violence (p. 525). The author "questions the logic of corrupt Portuguese authority over good Indians; religion is merely a pretext for European domination, it would be more appropriate for the Indian subjects to give religious instruction to their European rulers" (Teltscher). The illustrations show the Hindu gods Brahma, Ishvara (Shiva) and Vishnu. August Voelckner drew them, perhaps based on native reliefs, and Johann Jakob Kleinschmidt in Augsburg engraved them for La Croze in Berlin.
Binding slightly rubbed, hinges worn, occasional slight foxing. From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013). Daniel Jeyaraj, Genealogy of the South Indian deities, pp. 223 & 233, note 22; STCN 214096998; WorldCat 18426305; cf. K. Teltscher, India described. European and British writing on India 1600-1800 (1995), pp. 89 ff. & 100 ff.