Italian map of Japan after Thomas Salmon

Italian map of Japan after Thomas Salmon.

Title Carta' Accvrata dell' Imperio del Giappone Nuovamente tratta dalle nuove relazioni datta in luce in Amsterdam per Isaak Tirion.

Author KAEMPFER, Engelbert; TIRION, Isaak and ALBRIZZI, Giovanni Battista.

Publisher Giovanni Battista Albrizzi.

Publication place Venice.

Publication date 1734.

Engraved map.

Notes

The first state of the map, published in the second volume of the Italian translation of Thomas Salmon's 'Modern History…or, the present State of all Nations', 'Lo Stato Presente Di Tutti Paesi E Popoli Del Mondo', 1734. A copy of Tirion's version of Kaempfer's map, probably engraved by Giuseppe Filosi (fl1732-1757), with only the title and the names of the seas and major features changed into Italian.

Albrizzi (1698-1777) began to publish Salmon's work in 1731, when he issued volume one. The second volume "containing the map of Japan was published only in 1734. By 1738, the popularity of the work forced him into publishing a second edition, probably having exhausted the initial volumes. He continued to add volumes up to a least 1762, by which time he had issued a volume 26" (Hubbard).

The map retains Tirion's mistakes and has inadvertently joined 'Jesso of Jesogasima' – Hokkaido – with 'Kamtzchata' and placed it further west than in Kaempfer's depiction. Tirion has added the route the Dutch took for their journey between Nagasaki and Edo with a broken line along the sea route and a double line along the land route.

Kaempfer (1651-1716), originally from Lemgo in Germany, was appointed a member of a Dutch trade mission bound for Japan in 1690. His resulting 'History of Japan...' is an encyclopedic, and profusely illustrated, description of the Japanese flora and fauna, government and industries, and it remained the chief source of Western knowledge of Japan for over a century. Sir Hans Sloane acquired Kaempfer's botanical specimens after the author's death, and had an English translation prepared by his librarian Scheuchzer, from the original manuscript.

Isaak Tirion (c1705-1765) was granted the privilege in September of 1728 to publish Salmon's work in Dutch, a little over a year after his name appears for the first time in the records of the bookseller's guild. Although he was primarily known as a bookseller, he also made a name for himself in the world of cartography, publishing a number of atlases despite the fact that he was neither a cartographer nor a geographer. His wife continued the business for about 10 years after his death.

Bibliography

Hubbard 84.1.

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