Exotic Pleasures (Persia and Asia observations)

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...wish," he said, "to first taste what I bring?" To which the other replied: "It is only right, for the taste summons the buyer." original: "ita par est, nam gustus emptorem vocat." Kaempfer uses this classical exchange to justify publishing this smaller work (Amoenitatum Exoticarum) as a "taster" before his larger volumes. Therefore, regarding this taste—if I find that these specimens are well-received—I shall shortly unroll the full collection itself and offer it to the booksellers:

1. Japan of Our Time, to be published in quarto A book size where each sheet is folded twice to create four leaves (eight pages). in German, with approximately forty illustrations;

2. A Specimen of the Herbarium from Beyond the Ganges in folio A large book format where sheets are folded only once, used for grand reference works., in Latin with about five hundred illustrations—provided that the Ambonese Garden of the Illustrious Mr. Rumphius Georg Eberhard Rumphius (1627–1702), a German-born botanist who worked for the Dutch East India Company. His "Hortus Amboinense" was a massive study of Indonesian plants. has first seen the light of day, so that I do not repeat what has already been done or seem to "carry wood to the forest"; A Latin idiom similar to "carrying coals to Newcastle," meaning to do something redundant.

3. A Tripartite Travelogue original: "Hodaeporicum tripartitum." From the Greek 'hodoiporikon,' a diary or description of a journey. in folio, with as many figures as the publisher’s budget will allow; I shall give him the choice of whether it should be issued in the Latin, German, or indeed the Dutch language.

For it is as yet an unorganized but complete work, recorded in various languages mixed together in my diaries. This work will contain three parts: the first will explain Russian-Tartarian matters; the second, those of Asia this side of the Ganges Mainly Persia and the Middle East.; the third, Asia beyond the Ganges South-East Asia and the Far East.. This follows the sequence of my long-endured journey, which I shall set out here very briefly for the Kind Reader, so that [they may see] of what things and regions my reports...