AMOENITATUM EXOTICARUM POLITICO-PHYSICO-MEDICARUM FASCICULI V,

Quibus continentur variae relationes, observationes & descriptiones rerum Persicarum & ulterioris Asiae, multâ attentione, in peregrinationibus peruniversum orientem, collectae.

Engraved title page as frontispiece, title page printed in red and black, (xvi), 912, (32 index) pages, 15 engraved folding plates and a folding chart, 63 engraved plates, 11 engraved illustrations in the text, signature in a old hand on the title page, the contents are browned throughout - heavily in place with some foxing in the margins, pages edges dyed red, old but not contemporary full sprinkled calf, spine decorated gilt in panels with a red title label, marbled endpapers, silk place marker, overall a good copy of a work printed on indifferent quality paper.

Hunt 427. 'An extremely important work botanically because of Fascile V which describes and illustrates the plants of the Orient. Here is pictured for the first time for Western eyes such a flower as the Camellia (page 850) under its Japanese name Tsubaki. Kaemfer travelled to the East via Persia where he worked for the Dutch East India Company in Java and Japan. On page 576 he mentions Governer 'van der Stelle' whom he had met. His return journey is not described but it was by sea and thus he visited the Cape. This is known from some unpublished letters which are held in the British Library.