Travel in the Caucasus and Georgia, Performed in the Years 1807 and 1808, by command of the Russian Government

FIRST EDITION, library stamp and “discarded” stamp to title, occasional light foxing, later half black morocco over marbled boards, new end papers, 4to, London, for Henry Colburn, 1814

German scholar, Julius von Klaproth, was instrumental in turning East Asian Studies into scientific disciplines with critical methods.

Klaproth had a good command not only of Chinese, but also Manchu, Mongolian, Sanskrit, Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Caucasian languages. His wide range of interests encompassed the study of the development of individual countries in their Asian context.

In 1807 Klaproth was sent to the Caucasus, by his Russian employers, on an ethnographical and linguistic exploration. On his return he published Reise in den Kaukasus. The work “provided an overwhelming wealth of new information about the country’s nature and the ethnographic-historical-linguistic conditions of the mountainous area between the Caspian and Black Seas.” (Henze)