Descrizione

London, Hakluyt society, 1913-16 stated, actually Peking, 1942 4 vols. complete. In all aspects identical to the new edition in the Hakluyt Society, Secondo Series XXXIII, XXXVII, XXXIII, XLI, revised throughout in the light of recent discoveries by Henri Cordier but printed in Beijing in 1942. Vol 1 portrait frontis , 2 maps, xxiii, 318 pp. Vol II 6 plates and map of Asia in pocket, xiii, 367 pp. Vol III map and 2 text illus, xv, 270 pp. Vol. IV, xii-359. hard rebound in half black cloth with gilt lettering on spine, and blue boards . very scarce chinese reprint . much scarcer than the london original (before the days of photo-reproduction), from the plates of the Hakluyt Society's 1913-16 edition, This could not have been a pirated edition, as the original plates seem to have been used. . It is a miracle that some academic in Beijing was interested enough to print these volumes in those times and another miracle that they survived the l wars between the Nationalists, the Communists and Japan that were devastating China in 1942. No copies traced in any library or auction records, and the Hakluyt Society cannot account for the Peking printing. A rarity In excellent condition.