Athanasii Kircheri e Soc. Jesu China monumentis

Alternate Titles

• Athanasii Kircheri China illustrata
• China illustrata
• Athanasii Kircheri Soc. Iesv China illvst[rata]

Description

This work, by Kircher's regular Amsterdam publishers, represents the 1st edition of his "China Illustrata" in Latin. A subsequent unauthorized edition, in a slightly smaller format but with the same text and with artfully copied engravings, was published by Amsterdam printer Jacob van Meurs, also in 1667. When the authorized printers, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge and Elizaeus Weyerstraten (who died shortly thereafter) were apprised of the situation they called for a meeting with Van Meurs, to be mediated by a third Amsterdam printer and attended by a notary public. At this meeting, on 27 June 1667, the aggrieved parties demanded that Van Meurs hand over the entirety of his copy of the work: all his printed copies along with his copper and woodblock plates. Further, he was to cease and desist from publishing this work again. In return Van Meurs received 3,450 florins, which basically covered the costs of his "reprint." Subsequent printings at the shop of Janssonius van Waesberge and Weyerstraten (and later with Weyerstraten's widow) used the slightly smaller engravings that Van Meurs had commissioned, though the text remained precisely the same.

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