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First-hand accounts of Russia ca. 1670 and life in the Mughal army;
from the library of a famous German explorer

STRUYS, Jan Jansz.
Drie aanmerkelyke reizen, door Italien, Griekenland, Lyfland, Moscovien, Tartaryen, Meden, Persien, Oostindien, Japan, en verscheiden andere gewesten.
Including: HEIDEN, Frans Jansz. van der. Vervaarlyke schipbreuk van 't Oostindiesch jacht Ter Schelling, onder het land van Bengale, ...
Amsterdam, Steven van Esveldt, 1746. 4to. 2 parts in 1 volume. Part 1 with an engraved title-page, 19 engraved folding plates and 1 engraved folding map; part 2 with an engraved title-page and 12 engraved plates. 19th-century red half sheepskin. [6], 382, 28, [15], [1 blank]; 134 pp.
€ 4,000
Probably the sixth edition of the account of the three voyages made by Jan Jansz. Struys (1630-1694) trough Asia in 1647-1673. Struys's first journey in 1647 was made as a sailmaker on board an East India merchant ship and brought him to Madagascar, Siam, Formosa (Taiwan) and Japan. On his second journey in 1655 he served aboard the Venetian fleet in a campaign against the Turks, was captured and escaped. His third and most interesting journey brought him to Russia, where in 1668 he set up shop as a master sailmaker. A large chapter of the book is devoted to descriptions of Moscow and rare descriptions of daily life in Russia. Subsequently, Struys made a long journey from Novgorod in the north to Astrakhan in the south. Later he gets sold to a Persian slave trader in Georgia. He travels with a caravan to Isfahan, giving a description of the city and its prominent architecture. Via Bandar-Abbas he travels to Muscat, where he started to work again as a sailmaker and later travelled further to the Dutch East Indies.
Added to Struys's journeys (as in many editions) is the horrible account of the shipwreck of the Dutch ship Terschelling on the coast of Bengal in 1661.
With an inscription by "Sieburgh" to the German explorer Robert Schlagintweit (1833-1885), dated 1859, on the second front endpaper and Schlagintweit's embossed library stamp on the title page. Two numbers written on the front paste-down and some soiling in the margins. Binding rubbed; a good, nearly untrimmed copy. Cordier, Sinica, col. 2083; STCN (3 copies pt. 1 & 4 copies pt. 2); Landwehr & V.d. Krogt, VOC 423; Slot, B.J. The Arabs of the gulf 1602-1784, p. 418; Tiele, Bibl. 462 & 1061.
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