Studies of Jesuit prints and manuscripts from Japan, now kept in collections across Europe and beyond, have thus far paid insufficient attention to these documents’ provenances. It is thus often not sufficiently clear when and how they left their country of origin, who their first owners were, and how they were transmitted afterwards. Relying not only on hints discernible from the objects themselves, but also—and primarily—on hitherto largely untapped sources, such as book sale catalogues, this chapter provides an overview of the owners of a number of Jesuit sources in seventeenth- to nineteenth-century Europe. What emerges, for the start of this period, is a picture of a broad network of owners based mostly in the Netherlands, exhibiting close ties with the Dutch East India Company. Finally, in addition to detailing the history of copies that have long been known, book sale catalogues can also hint at the existence of further items awaiting rediscovery and recovery from oblivion.

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Early European Owners of Jesuit Prints and Manuscripts from Japan: A View Based Chiefly on Book Sale Catalogues

  • Sven Osterkamp

摘要

Studies of Jesuit prints and manuscripts from Japan, now kept in collections across Europe and beyond, have thus far paid insufficient attention to these documents’ provenances. It is thus often not sufficiently clear when and how they left their country of origin, who their first owners were, and how they were transmitted afterwards. Relying not only on hints discernible from the objects themselves, but also—and primarily—on hitherto largely untapped sources, such as book sale catalogues, this chapter provides an overview of the owners of a number of Jesuit sources in seventeenth- to nineteenth-century Europe. What emerges, for the start of this period, is a picture of a broad network of owners based mostly in the Netherlands, exhibiting close ties with the Dutch East India Company. Finally, in addition to detailing the history of copies that have long been known, book sale catalogues can also hint at the existence of further items awaiting rediscovery and recovery from oblivion.