Letter from Father d’Incarville of the Society of Jesus at Peking, China - 1753

Description

Read before the Royal Society on June 7, 1753,
A Letter from Father d’Incarville, of the Society of Jesus, at Peking in China, to the late Cromwell Mortimer, M. D. R. S. Secr.
presents a picture of life in China in the mid-Eighteenth century. The discussion covers such
scientific
areas
such
as
the local plants, trees, fossils and miscellaneous products such as silk and
dyes.
The item is a First Edition, extracted and disbound from The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 48, For the Year 1753, pages 253-260. This volume of the transactions was published in London in 1754.
The paper, which measures approximately 6 ¼ x 8 ¾ inches, contains eight
tanned
pages.
The text is clear and easily read.
Father Pierre Nicolas d'Incarville
(1706-
17
57), a Jesuit missionary in Peking, was a trained botanist. In 1748 he sent an annotated catalogue of Chinese plants to the Secretary of the Royal Society, Cromwell Mortimer. The catalogue was accompanied by packets of seeds, each labelled with the Chinese name for the plant in question. Mortimer distributed half of these to the botanical gardens at Oxford, Edinburgh and Chelsea, and sent the rest to d'Incarville's colleague Bernard de Jussieu in Paris. D'Incarville's catalogue includes recommendations for European culinary and medicinal use of Chinese plants. Sometimes, though, his comments show typical European cautiousness about adopting new habits. For example, he wrote: "I have never seen such beautiful celery roots in Europe as I have here in Peking. The Chinese throw the root away, and eat only the shoots. We do not imitate them in this, as you may imagine." D'Incarville was highly regarded by the Chinese Emperor and introduced European plants into the Imperial gardens. [Wikipedia]
Cromwell Mortimer FRS
(c.1693–January 7, 1752) was a British physician, antiquary and second secretary of the Royal Society from 1730-1752. [Wikipedia]