First English edition "The voyages and adventures of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto" London 1653 - China, India, Ethiopia

The voyages and adventures of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, a Portugal, during his travels for the space of one and twenty years in the Kingdoms of Ethiopia, China, Tartaria, Cauchinchina, Calaminham, Siam, Pegu, Japan, and a great part of the East-Indies. With a relation and description of most of the places thereof ; their religion, laws, riches, customs, and government in time of peace and war : where he five times suffered shipwrack, was sixteen times sold, and thirteen times made a slave : written originally by himself in the Portugal tongue and dedicated to the Majesty of Philip King of Spain ; done into English by H.C. Gent. London

-Complete: (xiv), 318pp

-PINTO, Fernão Mendes

-Printed in London in 1653

-"Published by Printed by J. Macock, for Hanry Cripps, and Lodowick Lloyd, and are to be fold at their shop in Popes head Alley neer Lumbar-Street, 1653"

-Title page trimmed and laid down. Nineteeenth century cloth binding with wear to front board. Some foxing, toning and staning. Closed tear (without losses) on page 281.

First published in Portuguese in 1614, this is the first English edition of Fernão Mendes Pinto’s celebrated account of his travels across Ethiopia, China, Japan, Siam, Pegu, and the East Indies. Blending adventure with sharp observation, the work became one of the most influential early European travel narratives on Asia. Although the preface defends some of the text’s more extraordinary claims, Pinto’s descriptions of East Asia played an important role in shaping European perceptions of the region for many years.