MS Japanese 75

A botanical treatise written in Kanbun with kunten by Udagawa Yōan (1798-1846), including terminology and illustrations copied from a number of European treatises including Kurt Sprengel’s 'Anleitung zur Kenntniss der Gewächse' (Halle, 1802), Marcello Malpighi’s 'Anatome plantarum' (first published in London in 1671), Nehemiah Grew’s 'The anatomy of plants' (first published in London in 1682), Carl Linnaeus’s 'Systema naturae' (first published in Leiden in 1735), Job Baster’s 'Natuurkundige uitspanningen, behelzende eenige waarneemingen, over sommige zee-planten en zee-insecten benevens derzelver zaadhuisjes en eijernesten' (an undated edition published in Utrecht; this work was first published in Haarlem in 1759-65) and Nikolaus von Jacquin’s 'Anleitung zur Pflanzenkenntniss nach Linnés methode: zum Gebrauche seiner theoretischen Vorlesungen' (first published in Vienna in 1785 and reissued in 1800).

Japan, 1834

Material: paper; ３巻 | 3 volumes; binding dimensions: height 261mm, width 188mm, depth 28mm

This copy of Shokugaku keigen bears several ownership seals of Takasu Shōsai 高須松斎 (1788-1869), a doctor who studied Dutch in Nagasaki and in 1815 conducted a dissection of the corpse of an executed criminal.