Search Results: Authors starting with I from PY Rare Books

FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST BOOK OF FATHER IAKINF, CALLED LATER "THE FATHER OF RUSSIAN SINOLOGY". Bichurin (1777-1853), here writing under his monastic name Iakinf, was named in 1805 leader of the 9th Russian Mission to Peking and head of the Sretenskii monastery in this town. During his 14-year stay he learnt Chinese, compiled his own dictionary and prepared other scholar works for later publication. He returned to Saint Petersburg in 1821: the first part of these Zapiski contains a detailed travel account of Iakinf's journey from Pekin to the Russian border town Kiakhta, including descriptions of the Great Wall, of the cities of Kalgan (Zhangjiakou) and Urga (Ulan Bator), the Gobi desert etc.
The three other parts are entirely devoted to Mongolia, then under Chinese rule: its geography, political system, climate, trade, population (its structure, fashion and customs). Bichurin gives a sketch of the history of Mongols, as well as of the legal system used by China to rule the region. The… Read More

Detailed illustrated history of this celebrated fortified monastery founded in the 1430s on an island of the White Sea - before becoming the first corrective labour camp of the Communist regime after the Revolution, and an early member of the GULAG system. With many full-page photographic plates and two large folding maps: of the Solovky islands and of the surrounding region.Provenance: Ya. D. Yagunov, 1936 (dated stamp to title); Avenir Nizoff (émigré, musician, and book collector who lived in Edmonton, Canada).Description: Quarto (30 x 23 cm). VIII incl. title and t.o.c., 225, [2] pp., with 27 plates of photographic reproductions, some double-page, and 2 folding plans loosely inserted; minimal occasional foxing, but overall very fresh internally. Publisher's maroon cloth with gilt lettering to upper cover, flat spine lettered in gilt; a bit rubbed, more on the edges and corners, bumped, spine lettering oxidized.