OGILBY, John (1600-1676), translator. NIEUHOFF, Jan (1640-1672). An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China. London: John Macock, 1669.

3 parts in one volume, folio (404 x 263 mm). Engraved allegorical title, letterpress title printed in red and black; double-page engraved map, double-page engraved plan, 18 engraved plates; 121 engraved illustrations in text; with blanks e2 and 2P2 (but lacking final blank). (Tiny worm track in upper gutter margin of a few leaves, a few quires browned, some light staining, a few short marginal tears.) Modern calf antique. Provenance: A few marginal annotations in an early hand.

FIRST EDITION of Ogilby's translation of Nieuhoff's work, a first-hand account based on his visit as Dutch ambassador to Emperor Chun Chi in Peking in 1655-1657, an attempt to open Chinese ports to Dutch trade. "Ogilby's translation [of Nieuhoff], if made from the Dutch original, is somewhere between a translation and paraphrase, cutting out what he may have thought boring to readers" (Lust 535). After publishing this work, Ogilby conceived an ambitious project, a multi-volume description of the world, which would include Asia as the subject of the third volume, following volumes devoted to Africa and America. Cordier (Sinica) 2347; ETSC R9298; Wing N-1152.

[Tipped in:] Manuscript map of China, on a bifolium, 237 x 198 mm. With manuscript annotations about population sizes of important cities in China on integral leaf. With inset plan of "Pekin." Ca 18th-century?

Property from the Dorros Family Collection

OGILBY, John (1600-1676), translator. NIEUHOFF, Jan (1640-1672). An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China. London: John Macock, 1669.