The First Modern Scientific Journal Printed in Asia - Batavia (Jakarta) 1779 - "Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap der Konsten en Wetenschappen"

"Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap der Konsten en Wetenschappen" 

"Transactions of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences"

"Eerste Deel"  - First Volume

-Printed in Batavia by the [Dutch East Indian] Company's Printer - by Egbert Heemen

-1779

-Bound in Early wrappers.

-Collation TP, 70, 5-357, 30, [4] -Missing pages 1-4 (an account of early European colonisation of Jakarta), otherwise complete.

This fascinating book is volume one of the first modern Scientific journal printed in Asia.

The “Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap der Konsten en Wentenschappen” or - “Transactions of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences” was printed in Batavia - modern day Jakarta - in 1779.

The journal aimed to spread enlightenment learning to Asia, and encouraged articles from across the Dutch speaking regions of Asia.

The printer Egbert Heemen, worked for the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The copy retains its nice decorative contemporary wrappers.

This first volume contains a wide range of scholarship produced in the Dutch East Indies, including reports on smallpox inoculation in Batavia, botanical classification of Malay plants using Linnaean taxonomy, and agricultural studies on sugar production. Experimental works with artificial magnets, critiques of Dutch maritime charts, comparative studies of Asian calendrical systems, and historical and ethnographic accounts of Java and Timor.