Description Géographique, Historique, Chronologique, Politique et Physique de l'Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoisie.

The first edition of Du Halde's 'encyclopaedic account of China' (Lust) -- and one of the earliest European sources on Chinese ceramics. Du Halde, who became a Jesuit priest in 1708, was entrusted by his superiors to edit the published and manuscript accounts of Jesuit travellers in China. The present work records the narratives of twenty-seven of these missionaries (listed in volume I, pp. li-li). Also notable is the Relation succinte du voyage du capitaine Beering dans la Sibérie (volume IV, pp.452-458), which is the first published account of Vitus Bering's 1728 voyage through the eponymous straits, whose importance he failed to recognize after sighting no land. The accompanying double-page map titled Carte des pays traversees par le Capne. Beering depuis la ville de Tobolsk jusqu' Kamtschatka (bound between pp.452 and 453) is based on Bering's manuscript map, which was given to the King of Poland and in turn passed Du Halde to be reproduced here. Bering's map is 'The first printed map of part of present Alaska' (S.I. Schwarz and R.E. Ehrenberg, The Mapping of America).