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Boxer, C. R. (Charles Ralph Boxer) : A True Description of the Mighty Kingdoms of Japan & Siam; Reprinted from the English edition of 1663; with Introduction, Notes and Appendixes

The Argonaut Press, London, England, 1935

Limited Edition. No. 199 of 475 copies printed. Original publisher's red cloth binding backed with white vellum. Gilt lettering on spine. Gilt decoration showing a coat of arms on the front cover. Original beige cloth bookmark included. 8" x 10 1/2." Pages [i]-cxxix, [1]-197, complete. Notes, Appendixes, Bibliography, and Index in back. Back colophon: "This Edition of Japan and Siam is the Fourteenth publication of the Argonaut Press and is limited to 475 copies on Japon Vellum, numbered 1 to 475. The volume has been printed by Walter Lewis, M.A., at the University Press, Cambridge, in the year 1935. This copy is Number 197." Pages and covers are very clean and intact. Binding is tight. Moderate age toning to pages. Leather spine slightly darkened. Minimal edge and corner wear to covers. Bookmark has a few dampstains. A Fine copy. A history of seventeenth-century Japan and Siam (present-day Thailand) with a sizable, in-depth Introduction by C. R. Boxer. Charles Ralph Boxer (1904-2000) was a British historian whose specialization was Dutch and Portuguese maritime and colonial history. Boxer was also a chief spy of British army intelligence. Excerpt from the Preface: "This present work has a double object in view. In the first place, it purports to give a critical edition of one of the best sources for the history of seventeenth-century Japan and Siam, to wit, the descriptions of those countries compiled by Francois Caron and Justus Schouten in 1636, and translated into English by Captain Roger Manley twenty-seven years later. For this purpose, the old English edition of 1663 has been reproduced with scrupulous fidelity, and carefully annotated. For the convenience of the ordinary reader, only textual errors have been noted at the foot of the page, and all explanatory notes have been relegated to a separate section at the end. The secondary aim of this work is to help English readers to obtain some notion of the predominant part played by the Dutch East India Company in the Far East at the time, as exemplified in the career of one of its most remarkable servants, Francois Caron.". Book. Book Condition: Fine. Binding: Hardcover

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