Asia.- Valentijn (Francois) Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën, vervattende een Naaukeurige en Uitvoerige Verhandelinge van Nederlands Mogentheyd, 5 vol. in 8, first edition, engraved frontispiece, portrait, and 272 maps, plans, and plates (many folding, a few with short splits at foldlines), and 80 in-text illustrations, 7 folding tables, Lionel B. Goldschmidt and Viscount Norwich bookplates, contemporary vellum, covers with blind-stamped medallion, spines with 8 raised bands lettered in ink, 2 vol. with spines splitting but firm, [Landwehr VOC, 467], folio, Dordrecht [&] Amsterdam, Joannes van Braam [&] Gerard Onder de Linden, 1724-26.

⁂ A fine copy of this rare work on the history of the Far East, exploring an array of countries such as Ceylon, China, Japan, Cambodia, Siam, and Bali. This extensive work includes maps, views, plans, and natural history including fish, shells, birds, and animals.

Valentijn (1666-1727) was born in Dordrecht and went out to Batavia in 1685 as an ecclesiastic in the Dutch East-India Company's employ. His famous work sometimes called the 'Encyclopaedia of the Dutch East-Indies' was the result of all his travels and researches and in it he treats of the Dutch commerce in various parts of the East and also of the histories and natural histories of the various lands and districts described by him. It includes remarkable maps of Australia, probably after manuscript maps now lost. Assisted by the famous naturalist Rumphius, volume III of Valentijn's magnum opus contains a detailed description of the botany, zoology (fishes and shells) of Ambon. The fifth book includes the description of Japan, Mauritius, and South Africa. "The most comprehensive work on Asia published in Europe during the early colonial period." (Landwehr p.468)