JOHANNES NIEUHOF

Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs, 1668. Jan Nieuhof (1618-1672) served as secretary on the 1655-7 Dutch mission from Canton to Beijing to secure a trading agreement with the Chinese emperor, Shunzhi. His account of the wonders to be seen in China excited the imaginations of readers throughout Europe. Much of the information in his text was cribbed from earlier writings by Jesuit missionaries, but what distinguished Nieuhof’s book was its wealth of illustrations (thirty-five plates, one hundred and eight text-engravings and a folding map). The copy presented is a rendition in Latin, translated from the Dutch by George Horn, a professor at Leyden University.