Een kort beskrffning uppå trenne reesor och peregrinationer, sampt Konungariket Japan:

I. Beskrifwes een Reesa, som genom Asia, Africa och många andra hedniska Konungarijken sampt Öijar; med flijt är förrättat aff Nils Matson Kiöping, fördetta Skepz-Lieutnat. II. Beskrifwes een Resa till Ost Indien, China och Japan: III. Med förestlliande om förbenembde stoora och mächta konungarijketz Japan tillstånd, sampt thetz Inwånares Handel och Wandel: förrättat och beskrefwen aff Oloff Erickson Willman, Kongl. Mayst:tz Skepz-Capitaien. IV. Uthföres een reesa ifrån Muszcow till China, genom Mongul och Cataja … … Wiisindzborg [Visingsborg] : Johann Kankel, 1674 [and 1673]. Four parts in one volume, quarto (200 x 160 mm), later limp vellum ruled in red ink, spine with manuscript lettering and decoration in red and black, silk ties; pp. [4], 304; paper typically browned, but very clean and sound throughout, a fine example.

Second edition of this scarce Swedish collection of travelogues, printed by German printer Johann Kankel at the private press of Swedish nobleman, Count Per Brahe the Younger, at Wisingsborg on the island of Visingsö in Lake Vättern. The first edition had been printed on the same press in 1667, in a run of only 500 copies. Brahe’s collection was the first such anthology of travel accounts to be published in the Swedish language.

The first account is that of Nils Mattsson Kiöping (1621-1680), who in 1648 sailed on a Dutch ship to the coast of West Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, and then on to Persia where he remained for several years in the service of the Shah. In 1652 he continued his journey by ship to Ceylon, Java and Formosa.

The second account, that of Olof Eriksson Willman, is contained in the second and third parts of the book. Willman’s travels were exactly contemporary with those of Kiöping: in 1648 he sailed with a VOC ship to the East Indies, where he stayed in Java until proceeding to Japan, arriving there in August 1651. Note that the separate title-page to Willman’s description of the kingdom Japan – the third part of the book – has a Visingsborg/Kankel imprint but is dated 1673, rather than 1674. Willman provides an important and detailed eyewitness description of the country, including as a participant in a Dutch embassy to Edo. His account of the Tōkaidō, or “Eastern Sea Route” – the road along the Pacific coast of Honshu connecting the imperial capital Kyoto with the shogunate capital Edo (Tokyo) – is one of the earliest by a European. He also includes a Swedish translation of François Caron’s Japan account.

The third account, which is contained in the fourth part of the book and is by far the briefest in the collection, is that of a Russian who travelled via Siberia and Mongolia to China.

Cordier, BJ, 380