Exotic Pleasures (Persia and Asia observations)

...[if] they were absolutely necessary for illustrating the subject matter, I would have rejected them as a disgrace to the book. And this is the reason why I have entirely omitted the sixth Fascicle Fasciculum: a 'bundle' or installment of a larger printed work, namely my Letters addressed to learned Men in Asia; for they discuss matters that cannot be understood without illustrations, which would need to be engraved by an accurate hand and with me present to oversee the work.

For this same reason, I have held back several items intended for Fascicle I: the Ground-plan Planographiam: a bird's-eye view or architectural map of the city of Isfahan, which I laboriously constructed through three months of study; the drawing of the Royal Road Chahar Bagh Tshahaar baag: Persian for 'Four Gardens,' the famous grand boulevard of Isfahan and the adjacent Gardens, especially Hazar Jarib Hadsar dsjerüb: Persian for 'A Thousand Acres,' a massive royal garden estate, and the houses standing within them; and the Illustrations of the four-legged animals to be seen in the city and in the Royal menageries theriotrophiis: a term derived from Greek for places where wild animals are kept.

I have also withheld many Inscriptions and specific Illustrations from ancient Persepolis intended for Fascicle II, as well as a new and accurate geographic map of Japan, and several others belonging to Fascicles III and IV, which I am now reserving in the hope of a better opportunity.

Regarding my woodcutter xylographo: an artist who carves images into wood blocks for printing, I make the same complaint as I did regarding the copper-engravers chalcographis. For he handled certain Chinese characters Sinicos characteres carelessly; the strokes original: "virgulis," literally "little twigs," here referring to the individual brushstrokes of the calligraphy were curved, lengthened, or shortened in ways they should not have been, and others were even poorly...