Exotic Pleasures (Persia and Asia observations)

-nment, and you are gloriously accustomed to devote yourself to your most select library original: "bibliothecæ"; Kaempfer highlights the Count's intellectual interests and his collection of books as a sanctuary from political life. with renewed ardor and pleasure of mind. Therefore, I have no doubt that you will graciously accept this present little work original: "opellam"; a modest diminutive often used by 18th-century authors to refer to their own books as a sign of humility before a patron., as a token of my most humble submission and as a sacrifice offered by a grateful soul for the innumerable benefits received from YOUR MOST NOBLE HOUSE.

We read that the sacrifices of ancient peoples, in which they offered the first fruitsoriginal: "primitias"; the first harvest of a season, traditionally offered to a deity as a sign of gratitude and to ensure future prosperity. of their crops, were pleasing above all others to Jupiter the Greatest original: "Jovi Maxumo"; the chief deity of the Roman pantheon. Kaempfer uses this classical allusion to flatter the Count, comparing the Count's favor to that of a supreme god., to whom nothing but what is grand and exceptional was owed. In emulation of this Divine example, YOUR HIGHNESS will also graciously look upon these my first fruits of the Orient original: "frugum Orientalium primitias"; a metaphorical reference to the research and specimens Kaempfer brought back from Asia. and these preludes to the larger works which I am soon to publish; and you will continue to mercifully cherish my humble state with the rays of Your Grace, so that my age, now declining