Karl Peter. Travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Performed between the Years 1770 and 1779. In Three Volumes.

by THUNBERG

£450 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

THUNBERG, Karl Peter. Travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Performed between the Years 1770 and 1779. In Three Volumes. London: Richardson and Egerton. [1793]. Three volumes, 8vo. Contemporary full tree calf, spines ornamented in gilt and with contrasting lettering-pieces; pp. xii, 317, [2, blank], xv [index]; xiv, [2, errata and list of plates], 316, [xvi, index]; xiii, [2], 31 ( Vocabulary of the Japanese Language ), 285, [2, blank], xv (index); engraved frontispiece and six plates (a few folding); bindings a little worn, traces of worming to the beginnings and ends of volumes I and III, contemporary ownership inscriptions to all half-titles; otherwise very good. Rare first edition in English. In 1795 a different publisher added a fourth volume. The Swedish naturalist and traveller had studied under Linnaeus at Uppsala University. "After graduating, Thunberg intended to study medicine in Paris, but he got waylaid by Amsterdam and Leiden in the Netherlands. There he met Johannes Burman, another former student of Linnaeus, professor of botany at Amsterdam. Burman convinced him to travel in search of plants, which was a common vocation of Linnaean students, so much so that these itinerant naturalists were often referred to as Linnaeus’s 'apostles'. There were three places in particular where a Dutchman might be welcomed, or at least tolerated: South Africa, the Dutch East Indies, and Japan. Japan was on the list because, since 1641, the only foreigners allowed to visit Japan w

• Binding: Hardcover

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