User talk:Ma hsm

Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest
Ma hsm -- Thank you for uploading links to books which have been digitized in the HKUL Digitization Initiative. I was particularly pleased to discover that you'd uploaded the English translation of van Braam's book about the Titsingh embassy to the Qing Imperial court.

I've been reading the French original which is part of the New York Public Library's rare books collection. It pleases me to be able to link citations from this book to an digitized page in English. Some, not all, will click on the link; and in the process of verifying that the citation is accurate, the reader will be evoking a tenuous connection with a record which created by someone who actually trekked across inland China in 1794-1795.

Unfortunately, this digitized book ends just before Titsingh, van Braam, and de Guignes are able to accept the Qianlong Emperor's invitation to attend him at the Yuangmingyuan). As you may know, the members of the Titsingh mission were the last European diplomats to savour the mid-winter splendor of the vast Summer Palace before its destruction by the Lord Elgin's troops during the punative Second Opium War in 1860.

There were two editions of van Braam's French language original:
 * van Braam Houckgeest, A.E. (1797). Voyage de l'ambassade de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales hollandaises vers l'empereur de la Chine, dans les années 1794 et 1795. Philadelphia: M.L.E. Moreau de Saint-Méry.

As I understand it, there were several 18th century English language versions, some of which were sharply abridged. Could it be that the book in the HKUL collection is one of these? Perhaps there isn't a second volume? I notice that a second volume isn't noted in the HKUL catalogue.
 * _______________. (1798). An authentic account of the embassy of the Dutch East-India company, to the court of the emperor of China, in the years 1974 and 1795, Vol. I. London : R. Phillips. [digitized by University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives, "China Through Western Eyes." ]

I seem to remember that at least one of the London-published English language editions was best ... but I don't remember exactly ...? Are you in a position to inquire further about this? Perhaps the library holds other copies of this book, and I simply over-looked the notation in the UKUL catalog?

If you are able to help, thank you for your efforts. If not, I still want to thank you for uploading this book. You'll notice that I promptly uploaded the map to the articles about van Braam and de Guignes ... and I incorporated an additional mention in the "See also" section of the Titsingh article. --Tenmei (talk) 19:34, 13 August 2008 (UTC)


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