DESCRIPTION DE L'ILE FORMOSA EN ASIE. DUE GOUVERNEMENT, DES LOIX, DES MOEURS & DELLA RELIGION DES HABITANTS..

Amsterdam: D'Estienne Roger, 1705. brown morocco, marbled paper endpapers and pastedowns. five raised bands. 12mo. brown morocco, marbled paper endpapers and pastedowns. five raised bands. xliv, 406, (4), (22) pages. First edition in French (the true first edition was the English edition printed by Dan. Brown [et al.] in 1704). This copy lacks the folded map of Japan and part of China as well as two of the sixteen engraved plates. Wear through the leather of the front hinge, as well as the head and bottom half of the spine, with loss. Corners rubbed. Rear board separated, yet present. Bookseller's ticket on front pastedown. Ownership inscription of George D. Holbrooke, of Trinity College, 1866, on first blank. Some mild toning to the edges of the preliminary leaves as well as the rear group of leaves. Table of contents in rear.



An early, formidable hoax, fictional travel account of, to contemporary Europeans intrigued by exotic exploits and travels, the Island of Formosa. -- the author pretending to be a native of the island of noble status. His inventions too were exotic, including a Formosan language among other imaginative accounts. The real author thought to be N.F.B. Rodes? who received a Jesuit education where he may have learned some background about Formosa. BRUNET Vol.IV, p.919. LOWNDES, 1989.



In Psalmanazar's posthumously published autobiography, the author writes "The Europeans have such obscure and various Notions of Japan, and especially of our Island Formosa, that they can believe nothing for Truth that has been said of it. But the prevailing Reason for this my Undertaking was, because the Jesuits I found have impos'd so many stories, and such gross Fallacies upon the Public, that they might the better excuse themselves from those base Actions, which deservedly brought upon them that fierce Persecution in Japan: I thought therefore it would not be unacceptable if I publish'd a short Description of the Island Formosa, and told the Reasons by this wicked Society, and at last all that profess'd Christianity, were, with them, expell'd that Country.".