»Der Ost-Indischen und angrenzenden Königreiche vornehmste Seltenheiten betreffende kurze Erläuterung«
Subtitle: Neue Funde zum Leben und Werk des Leipziger Chirurgen und Handelsmanns Caspar Schamberger (1623-1706)
Publisher: Kyushu University, The Faculty of Languages and Cultures Library
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Fukuoka, Hana Shoin
ISBN-13: 9784903554716
Description: This book presents a newly discovered text of which only one copy has survived in the Dresden State Art Collections (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Muenzkabinett). It was dedicated to the Duke of Saxony Johann Georg III. and published in 1686 as a private print under the title "Short explanations of the most distinguished rarities in East India and the neighbouring kingdoms".

The author Caspar Schamberger (1623-1706) who had been in Asia for twelve years working as a surgeon on VOC ships and in Dutch trading posts is known as the "father" of the first fully-fledged Western-style surgery school in Japan. His text describes fruits, plants, animals, people, coins etc. from Persia to Japan including the Khoikhoi (Khoisan) in Southern Africa. This is one of the earliest Western accounts of these matters based on observations made during the late 1640s and 1650s.

The extensive commentary (126 pages) gives an outline of Schamberger's life presenting numerous new information on Schamberger's activities after his return to Leipzig in 1658. Schamberger's descriptions are analysed in detail within the context of similar accounts of nine contemporary German travellers: Caspar Schmalkalden, Zacharias Wagener, Heinrich Muche, Johann Wilhelm Vogel, Elias Hesse, Albrecht Herport, George Meister, Andreas Cleyer, Engelbert Kaempfer. Forty-six illustrations selected from Western and Japanese sources convey the iconographic background.
Table of contents: title: Einleitung 	1; title: Abriss eines abenteuerlichen Lebens 	5; title: Zurück aus Ostindien – Schamberger in Leipzig 	16; title: Zum Druck der Schambergerschen »Erläuterung« 	28; title: S*truktur und Besonderheiten der drei »Schildereyen« 	32; title: Frühe Ostindien-Fahrer und ihre Bildmaterialien 	34; title: *  Caspar Schmalkalden 	35; title: *  Zacharias Wagener 	37; title: *  Heinrich Muche 	40; title: *  Johann Wilhelm Vogel 	53; title: *  Elias Hesse 	55; title: *  Albrecht Herport 	57; title: *  George Meister 	61; title: *  Andreas Cleyer 	69; title: *  Engelbert Kaempfer 	78; title: Zum Inhalt der Schambergerschen »Erläuterung« 	86; title: *  Handel und Wandel der Niederländer in Ostindien 	86; title: *  Früchte, Wurzeln, Nüsse 	87; title: *  Tiere 	107; title: *  Münzen 	111; title: *  Ethnische Abbildungen 	116; title: *  Sprache und Schrift 	123; title: Rückblick 	125; title: Text: Dreier in Untertänigkeit offerierten Schildereien kurze Erläuterung 	127; title: Quellen und Literatur 	169; title: *  Handschriftliche Quellen 	169; title: *  Gedruckte Quellen (16.-18. Jh.) 	172; title: *  Sekundärliteratur 	190; title: *  Allgemeine Nachschlagewerke 	204; title: Register 	222