Title: An Historical Essay Endeavoring a Probability that the Language of the Empire of China is the Primitive Language
Author: Webb, John
Description: [8], 212 pp.; errate leaf. Title-page printed in red & black. Folding copper-engraved map. (8vo) 6½x4, period speckled sheep, morocco spine label; custom-made leather slipcase. First Edition.First edition, first issue of the first book on the Chinese language to be published in Europe, and possibly the first book in English on China, with the rare map, almost always lacking. A re-issue with different title appeared in 1678. Harbsmeier notes that "Webb's contribution to Sinology is so important because he summarized what could be gleaned on the Chinese language from the published Western literature, and because he was the first to make a systematic book-length attempt to define the place of Chinese among the languages of the world...[and] to constructing out of these reports a case that Chinese was the original language of mankind before the building of the Tower of Babel." The folding map by Edmondo Squib, "An Exact Mapp of China, being faithfully Copied from one brought from Peking by a Father Lately resident in that Citty," features depictions of a Chinese man, a Chinese woman, and the emperor, as well as the great wall. It has a short stub tear. Wing W1202.
Heading: Place Published: London
Publisher: Printed for Nath. Brook
Date Published: 1669
Author: Webb, John
Description: [8], 212 pp.; errate leaf. Title-page printed in red & black. Folding copper-engraved map. (8vo) 6½x4, period speckled sheep, morocco spine label; custom-made leather slipcase. First Edition.First edition, first issue of the first book on the Chinese language to be published in Europe, and possibly the first book in English on China, with the rare map, almost always lacking. A re-issue with different title appeared in 1678. Harbsmeier notes that "Webb's contribution to Sinology is so important because he summarized what could be gleaned on the Chinese language from the published Western literature, and because he was the first to make a systematic book-length attempt to define the place of Chinese among the languages of the world...[and] to constructing out of these reports a case that Chinese was the original language of mankind before the building of the Tower of Babel." The folding map by Edmondo Squib, "An Exact Mapp of China, being faithfully Copied from one brought from Peking by a Father Lately resident in that Citty," features depictions of a Chinese man, a Chinese woman, and the emperor, as well as the great wall. It has a short stub tear. Wing W1202.
Heading: Place Published: London
Publisher: Printed for Nath. Brook
Date Published: 1669
Condition report
Minor rubbing to covers, joints tender; light staining to title-page, else very good or better, with the armorial bookplate of Hans Sloane Esq.
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Auction details
Rare Books & Manuscripts
1:00 PM PT - Feb 21st, 2008
offered by
PBA Galleries
133 Kearny Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
San Francisco, CA 94108
