LE COMTE, Louis Daniel (1655--1728)
Nouveaux memoires sur l'état présent de la Chine. Par le R. P. Louis Le Comte de la Compagnie de Jesus, ... Enrichi de figures. ...
Suivant la copie de Paris. A Amsterdam chez J.L. de Lorme, & Est. Roger, 1697.
2 vols ; 15.6 cm. (12º)
I: [30], 369, [1] p., [18] pl. (2 fold.), [1] fold. table
II: [4], 386, [2] p., frontis. port., [1] map, [1] port.

Le Comte, a Jesuit and royal mathematician, was one of six missionaries sent to the Manchu court in 1685 by King Louis XIV. This work, first published in Paris in 1696, is an account of Le Comte’s sojourn in China between 1687--1692, in the form of letters to members of French court circles dealing with his travels and observations on Chinese civilisation. It was condemned by the Sorbonne for its thesis that the Chinese had always known God. An English translation appeared in 1697 (ESTC r15898). Title-pages printed in red and black. With an engraved frontispiece portrait of Emperor K'ang-hsi.


Copy Notes Bought from Thomas Boone for 3s. 6d., 5 July 1815. (Spiers Box).

Binding C17th vellum, spine ink-lettered 'L. Le Comte / De La Chine / Tom: I. ( ... II.)'.

Reference Number 303