Du Halde's China - Description geographique historique, chronologique

DU HALDE, J.B. (1674-1743). Description geographique historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise, enrichie des cartes generales et particulieres de ces Pays, de la Carte générale & des Cartes particulieres du Thibet, & de la Corée, & ornée d’un grand nombre de Figures & de Vignettes gravées en Taille-douce. et de la Tartarie chinoise, enrichie des cartes generales et particulieres de ces Pays, de la Carte générale & des Cartes particulieres du Thibet, & de la Corée, & ornée d’un grand nombre de Figures & de Vignettes gravées en Taille-douce. Paris: Chez P.G. Le Mercier, 1735. First edition. Here is what AI says it’s worth: $20,100. Cost: Christie’s, 2020 - GBP 11,250. Four volumes. Folio (16 15/16” x 11 ¼”, 431mm x 287mm). Vol. I: binder’s blank, π2 a-b2 a-o2 A-Aaa2 Bbb2(±*Bbb2) Ccc-7K2 (7K2 blank) [$1 signed; 7A-7K2 mis-signed as 6A-6K2]. 330 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), i ij-viij (8pp. dedication), 2i 2ij-lij (52pp. preface) 3i-iij 3iv (4pp. table), 1 2-584 587-92, 2pp. blank.[= lxviii, 592] With 25 engraved plates, two outline-colored. Vol. II: binder’s blank, π2 a2 A-8X2 (8X2 blank) [$1 signed; Rr mis-signed as “R”]. 368 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), iv (4pp. table), 1 2-725, [3] (errata, 2pp. blank).[= viii, 728)] With 10 engraved plates, one of which (at Ii1.2 (pp. 126-127)) is additional to the text, cut down and mounted from Bassire. Vol. III: binder’s blank, π2 a2 A-6H2 6K-7C2 6I2 7D2, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 288 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, bank, title, blank), iv (4pp. table), 1 2-492 497-564 493-496, ix [3] (errata, 2pp. approbations and royal privilege, blank).[= viii, 568] With 5 engraved plates. Vol. IV: 2 binder’s blanks, π2 a2(-a2) A-6P2 (6P2 blank) [$1 signed]. 263 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), ij (2pp. table), 1 2-436 439-520, 2pp. blank.[= vi, 520] With 25 engraved plates, one outline-colored. With 65 engraved plates (plus an engraved title-vignette, headpiece and initial in each volume). Bound in contemporary calf with a triple blind fillet border on the boards. On the spine, six raised bands with dashed gilt roll. Panels gilt. Title gilt to modern black sheep in the second panel. Number gilt to modern black sheep in the third panel. Double gilt fillet on the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelle. Red, yellow, blue and green marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block stained red. Rebacked with the original back-strip laid down, but with modern spine labels. Rear fore-corners of vol. IV restored, lower rear fore-corner of voll. I and III restored. All fore-corners of vol. II restored. Some scattered scuffs, scratched and rubbing but altogether a strong and handsome set. Internally very good indeed, with some scattered tanning and the rarest foxing. Vol. I p. 202 (Eee1.2) a plate is bound upside-down. Vol. III Ss2 (pp. 136-4) lower fore-corner lacking, but not affecting text; quire 6I (pp. 493-496) is bound after 7C (p. 564). Excellent margins, with many preserved deckle-edges at top, bottom and fore-edges. With four indications of provenance: the armorial bookplate of A. Brölemann (front paste-down of vol. I, laid in vol. II), the bookplate of P. Goyet (verso of the first free end-paper of voll. I & III, verso of initial binder’s blank in voll. II & IV), the (partially-effaced) stamp “ex libris pigache” beneath the Goyet bookplate in voll. III & IV, and the armorial stamp of Mazuyer de la Tourette (verso of the half-title-page in voll. I & II, recto of the half-title-page in voll. III & IV). Jean Baptiste du Halde (1674†1743) was a Jesuit and Professor at the Collège Louis-le-Grand (the Jesuit college in Paris). From 1711-1743 he edited for publication the dispatches of Jesuit missionaries around the world, which put him in the position to compile the Description without ever having been to China. The principal purpose of this magisterial publication, as du Halde’s dedicatory letter to Louis XIV specifies, was the advancement of Christianity in China and in Asia more widely. The expansiveness of the work’s remit – “universal” and “encyclopedic” are often used to describe it – owes a great deal to the missionaries’ work in China. The kernel might be said to be the Jesuits’ cartographic project for the Kangxi emperor, who ruled China from 1661 to 1722. The relative peace over which he reigned led to a desire to map the newly-expanded and solidified Chinese territory. While Ricci (also a Jesuit) had produced in 1602 the first world map for China, Jesuits continued over the course of the seventeenth century to produce more and more detailed and precise maps of China itself. Thus by the early eighteenth century, the Kangxi emperor commissioned a small group of Jesuits to map the whole of the Chinese kingdom.[1] On the armature of these maps was overlaid a monument of Jesuitical inquiry; no subject was ignored. There are complete scripts of plays and songs translated into French, accounts of counting systems and mapping conventions, an exploration of the teaching of Confucius – the inclusion of whom in Chinese Christians’ rituals was a source of great controversy – and the broader cosmos of Chinese philosophy. The completeness of the account was augmented by the rich set of engraved plates, which in addition to maps showed town plans, depictions of Chinese rituals and dress, and even transcriptions of Chinese music in Western notation. The work’s scope was not limited to China (la Tartarie chinoise in the title referring to Mongolia), but extended into Tibet, east to Korea and north through to modern Russia; indeed vol. IV contains an account of Bering’s voyage through the straits that now bear his name, and the first printed map of any part of Alaska. It is perhaps not an exaggeration to call this work – which was printed in Amsterdam the following year as a low-cost alternative, and translated into English and a great many other languages and formats – the foundational text of Chinoiserie in the eighteenth century. It served only to drive the European demand for silk and porcelain, and, when that was too expensive or impractical, for local versions “in the style of the East.” The provenance of the book speaks to many generations of Lyonnais ownership. The first owner, likely, was a member of the Mazuyer de la Tourette family of Lyon. Though other families have the same arms (azure, a chevron Or between in chief two mullets Or and in base a crescent argent) only Mazuyer de la Tourette uses the count’s coronet (cf. Morgan MS M.483, a late XVIIc prayerbook bearing the same arms).[2] The prominence of placement and consistency of the armorial stamp in all four volumes points to the family (it is impossible to say which member) being the first to place the mark of ownership. Next was a certain M. Pigache, a prolific collector not only of books (sold in Paris in 1776 (the present item appears on p. 27 of the sale catalogue; see reference below)) but also of various minerals of jewels, which were also sold in 1776. The next mark of ownership is the bookplate of Pierre Goyet (1724†1794), canon of the collegial church of Villefranche-sur-Saône in the heart of Lyon. He was a prolific collector and a scholar in a wide variety of fields; he was executed in Lyon during the Terror and his library was sold at auction in 1809. There is necessarily a gap, and then the book came into the hands of Arthur-Auguste Brölemann (1826†1904), also of Lyon, was the president of its tribunal de commerce; he built his collection upon that of his grandfather Henri-Auguste. [Sale catalogues]. Notice de livres et de manuscrits précieux du cabinet de M. *** [Pigache] Dont la vente se sera au plus offrant & dernier Enchérisseur en une salle de l’Hôtel d’Aligre, rue Saint-Honoré, le Mardi 12 Novembre & jours suivants de relevée… Paris: Chez de Bure, fils ainé; 1776. [1] For more on this project, see Theodore N. Foss, “A Western Interpretation of China: Jesuit Cartography” in Charles E. Ronan and Bonnie B.C. Oh (eds.), East Meets West. The Jesuits in China, 1582-1773 (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1988) 209-251. [2] With thanks to Sheelagh Bevan, Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator at the Morgan Library in New York, who provided an image of the arms as well as substantial assistance in tracing the provenance of the present item.

Utropspris:SEK 246,109.97

Visa alla föremål frånArader GalleriesellerBöcker, Kartor och Texter