EAST MEETS WEST
Original Records of Western Traders, Travellers, Missionaries and Diplomats to 1852

Part 2: The Papers of Englebert Kaempfer (1651-1716) and related sources from the

            British Library, London

The Scope of East Meets West

East Meets West makes available original sources describing Western interaction with a wide range of Asian countries up to the middle of the nineteenth century.

As such, it dovetails with our companion projects, China Through Western Eyes, which covers Western interaction with China from the famous British Macartney Embassy in 1792; and Japan Through Western Eyes, which covers Western interaction with Japan from the ‘opening up’ of the country by Commodore Perry in 1853.

East Meets West Part 1 was based on the sources displayed at the ' Japan Encountered' exhibition at the Bodleian Library in 1991, which made many scholars aware for the first time of the richness of Oxford holdings in this area.  It covers:

• The Christian Century in Japan;
• Jesuit Editions;
• Early Travels to Japan;
• The English and Dutch East India Companies;
• Images of Japan;
• Expeditions to Japan in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.

Exceptional items include: the log book of William Adams (1564-1620) describing four voyages made to Cochin-China and Siam; a magnificent illuminated copy of The Travels of Marco Polo, produced in England in c1400 by the artist Johannes; one of only two originals of the shuinjo, issued by Ieyasu Tokugawa, granting trading privileges to the English East India Company; and a host of rare printed items from Antwerp, Amsterdam, Mainz, Munich, Paris, St Omer, Alcala, Lisbon, Madrid, Rome, Venice, Edo, Kyoto, Nagasaki, Kazusa, and Osaka.

This guide concentrates on Parts 2 and 3 of the project, which have both been drawn from the rich manuscript resources of the British Library.

Part 2 is largely drawn from the Sloane Manuscripts series and covers the papers of Englebert Kaempfer (1651-1716), the German physician who travelled extensively across Russia, Iran, Ceylon, Malaysia, Thailand and Japan from 1683 to 1693 and is known as the ‘First interpreter of Japan.’  We also include records of Jesuit Missions in Asia, 1593-1686; and the important manuscript diary of Richard Cocks (d1624), who was the Head of the English Factory in Japan, 1615-1622.

Part 3 is based on the Additional and Egerton manuscripts series and offers substantial resources concerning John Scattergood (1681-1723), a merchant in Madras who had extensive trading interests in the East Indies, Persia and China.; Isaac Titsingh (1740?-1812), a Dutch explorer, diplomat and administrator, who went to Japan as the Dutch Envoy in 1778 and served as Director of the Dutch East India Company factory at Nagasaki (Deshima Island) for three periods between 1779 and 1784; and Heinrich Julius Klaproth (1783-1835), a German orientalist scholar who led expeditions to Asia in 1805 and 1807, and whose Historischer Atlas von China, in ein und zwanzig Karten was a landmark work.  There are also additional volumes describing Austrian, Dutch, French and Spanish trade and missions to Asia, 1493-1821.

Further parts will cover British voyages to Asia, c1500-1850.

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