28        DU HALDE, Jean-Baptiste (1674-1743). Description geographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise. 4 volumes 4° (260x210 mm). Titles printed in red and black with engraved device, 5 engraved head-pieces, 4 text engravings, 53 engraved plates (some folding), including a number of city plans, and 4 lettre-press tables. Contemporary tan calf, spine gilt and divided into six panels, lettered in the second and numbered in the third, the rest tooled with corner pieces and fleurons; cover edges gilt, all edges marbled. Minimally rubbed, one corner of volume 3 bumped; slightly foxed and toned in places, else fine. La Haye,Henri Scheurleer, 1736.                                                                                                                                                                                               

 The Bible of European sinophilia (Löwendahl).

A monumental work, which is of paramount importance for the reception of China in the 18th century.

Du Halde, a Jesuit, was never in China but recorded the accounts of twenty-seven Chinese missionaries, who sent material to Paris (listed in volume I, pp. li-lii), which he selected for his work on the basis of encyclopaedic criteria.
This is the first quarto edition, with a new preface and bibliography, first published in Paris the previous year in a folio edition but without the maps d'Anville added there; they appeared separately in 1737 in an atlas volume.
It covers a wide range of subjects such as geography, literature, science, philosophy, art, technology, medicine, porcelain and silk manufacturing, Confucian traditions, costumes, and agriculture. The great value of Du Halde's description of China lies in the abundance of interesting details that gave readers in Europe an impression of the greatness of the Chinese Empire (cf. Löwendahl).
The first volume of is devoted to geography and travel; the second volume deals with crafts, arts, language, finance and imperial ordinances; the third volume describes, among other things, the religions of Taoism, Buddhism, the spread of Christianity in China and Chinese medicine; the fourth volume contains travel descriptions, including those of Verbiest, Gerbillon, Golovin, Régis and notably the first printed account of Vitus Bering's first expedition to Alaska in 1725-1728.

A fine copy.

Provenance: Franz Pollack-Parnau (1903-1981), bookplate.
References: De Backer/Sommervogel IV, 36; Cordier, Biblioteca Sinica, I, 48; Löwendahl I, 398; Hill 498; Löwendahl I, 398.

Price: CHF  9800