Recüeil de plusieurs relations et traitez singuliers & curieux

de J.B. Tavernier, escuyer, Baron d’Aubonne, qui n’ont point esté mis dans ses six premiers voyages : divisé en cinq parties. I. Une relation du Japon, & de la cause de la persecution des chrestiens dans ses isles … II. Relation de ce qui s’est passe dans la negociation des deputez qui ont este en Perse & aux Indes tant de la part du roy que de la Compagnie francoise pour l’establissement du commerce III. Observations sur le commerce des Indes orientales & sur les fraudes qui s’y peuvent commettre IV. Relation nouvelle & singuliere du royaume de Tunquin … V. Histoire de la conduite des Hollandois en Asie. Paris : Gervais Clouzier, 1679. Quarto (255 x 195 mm), contemporary full calf (lightly rubbed and scuffed, corners bumped), spine in compartments with elaborate gilt tooling and contrasting title-label lettered in gilt; pp. [xvi], 1-72, [ii], 1-156, [ii], 1-22, [2], 23-78, [2], 79-96, [ii], 1-178; with 2 large folding maps, Carte des Isles du Iapon (old closed tear at one edge, else very good) and Carte faite sur les lieux par Daniel Tavernier en plusieurs voiages qu’il a fait au Tonquin (short closed edge tear, insignificant loss at bottom corner), and 8 folding engraved plates (one with slit at fold, otherwise all very good); woodcut headpieces and initials; occasional spotting, a very good example in a contemporary binding, complete except for the frontispiece portrait of Tavernier (often found lacking).

With an important map of Japan.

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689), a French Huguenot gem merchant, was one of the most widely travelled Europeans of the seventeenth century. At his own expense, he made no fewer than six voyages to Asia between 1630 and 1668, visiting Persia, India, Mongolia, Sumatra, and Batavia. His popular best-selling book, Les Six Voyages, was published in 1676 under the patronage of Louis XIV himself – Tavernier having famously sold the Sun King the 116-carat Tavernier Blue diamond for 120,000 livres (the equivalent of 172,000 ounces of pure gold) in 1668. Six Voyages was translated into German, Dutch, Italian, and English during Tavernier’s lifetime. Tavernier died on the Volga River in 1689.

Offered here is the first edition of Recüeil de plusieurs relations, Tavernier’s wide-ranging travel work which contains exclusively material that was not included in Six Voyages, and in effect serves as a supplement to that work. It most notably contains substantial relations on the kingdom of Japan and on the persecution of Christians there (1-72) and on the kingdom of Tonkin (1-96). It has the very desirable large map of Japan (52 x 78 cm), lacking in many surviving copies, as well as Daniel Tavernier’s map of Tonkin, which was the first map to show the complete coastline of Vietnam. The information in the Japan account was gathered from merchants and various other sources; the account of Tonkin draws largely on the first-hand observations of Tavernier’s brother Daniel, who had accompanied him on his second voyage and settled at Batavia.

Corder, BJ, 394