Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise [...].

4 vol., 4to: lxxx-488-[35], [6]-834, [6]-652, [4]-606-[128] pp.; 54 pl. (occ. spotting).

Contemp. mottled calf, gilt-orn. spines with raised bands, red leather title labels, renewed marbled paper doublures, red spr. edges (one turn-in missing, another restored with part. missing, spines sl. cracked, bumped corners). Large margins copy.

Second French edition, actually a reprint of the first folio ed. (Paris, 1735), by Du Halde (1674-1743), French Jesuit and professor at the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris. This classic work is considered as one of the most important books on China of the time and the first to provide the West with accurate information about the Middle Kingdom. It gives an almost encyclopaedic survey of China, compiled from unpublished and printed works of seventeen Jesuits. Ill. with 55 pl. (19 fold., 4 with an additional explanatory leaf): 3 maps (borders enhanced with watercolour on the 2 general maps of China), 23 plans of cities, and 29 pl. showing a wide variety of Chinese matters (ceremonies, artisans at work, costumes, portraits of i.a. Confucius, Jesuit missionaries incl. Verbiest, etc.), botany, numismatics, 1 pl. of music score, etc., many by J. C. Philips after A. Humblot, others by Humblot after J. van der Spyck, one by Philippe van Gunst, most unsigned. Titles printed in red and black. An Atlas was published separately in 1737 with the maps by d'Anville.
ref. Brunet II:868. - Cordier, Sinica, 48. - DBS IV:36.
Prov. Cornelis de Haan, Antwerp (ms. entry "voyage en Chine, 1953" and armorial bookpl. "Hemminga").