page_title: Engelbert Kaempfer
section_title: Manuscripts
hierarchical_section_title: Engelbert Kaempfer / Manuscripts
caption_attribution_description: Manuscript from Engelbert Kaempfer, British Library Add Mss 2912
context_page_description: Engelbert Kaempfer was a German naturalist, physician, explorer and writer known for his tour of Russia, Persia, India, Southeast Asia, and Japan between 1683 and 1693.
  He wrote two books about his travels. Amoenitatum exoticarum, published in 1712, is important for its medical observations and the first extensive description of Japanese plants. His History of Japan, published posthumously in 1727, was the chief source of Western knowledge about the country throughout the 18th and mid-19th centuries when it was closed to foreigners.
context_section_description: At Kaempfer's death his mostly unpublished manuscripts were purchased by Sir Hans Sloane via George I's court physician Johann Georg Steigerthal and conveyed to England. Among them was a History of Japan, translated from the manuscript into English by Sloane's librarian John Gaspar Scheuchzer (1702–1729). It was first published at London, in 2 vols., in 1727. The original German (Heutiges Japan, Japan of Today) had not been published; the extant German version was translated from the English. Besides Japanese history, this book contains a description of the political, social and physical state of the country in the 17th century. For upwards of a hundred years, when Japan was closed to foreigners, it was the chief source of information for the general reader. In the 21st century it is considered to have some value. A life of the author is prefixed to the History. Kaempfer's original manuscripts are held by the British Library.
  Most have been published since 2001:
  Engelbert Kaempfer, Werke. Kritische Ausgabe in Einzelbänden. Herausgegeben von Detlef Haberland, Wolfgang Michel, Elisabeth Gössmann.
  Vol 1/1 Engelbert Kaempfer: Heutiges Japan. Herausgegeben von Wolfgang Michel und Barend J. Terwiel. 2001.[xiv, 779 pp., 93 ills. Transliteration of EKs manuscript, British Library London, Ms Sl 3060, reproduction of drawings, index]
  Vol 1/2 Engelbert Kaempfer: Heutiges Japan. Herausgegeben von Wolfgang Michel und Barend J. Terwiel. 2001 [vii, 828 pp., 56 ills.] [Extensive commentary by Michel on Kaempfer's manuscript and drawings, Japanese and Western coworkers, Kaempfer's research context, his Japanese collection etc. including a bibliography] ISBN 3-89129-931-1
  Vol 2 Briefe 1683–1715.- München: Iudicium Verl., 2001. ISBN 3-89129-932-X ["Letters 1683–1715"]
  Vol 3 Zeichnungen japanischer Pflanzen. – München: Iudicum Verl., 2003. ISBN 3-89129-933-8 ["Drawings of Japanese plants"]
  Vol 4 Engelbert Kaempfer in Siam. – München: Iudicum Verl., 2003. – ISBN 3-89129-934-6 ["Kaempfer in Siam"]
  Vol 5 Notitiae Malabaricae. – München: Iudicum Verl., 2003. ISBN 3-89129-935-4 ["Notes on Malabar": on the southern India region, known as South Kerala]
  Vol 6 Russlandtagebuch 1683. – München: Iudicum Verl., 2003. ISBN 3-89129-936-2 ["Russia diary 1683"]
caption: Manuscript from Engelbert Kaempfer, British Library, Sloane MS 2912
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