Everything about Engelbert Kaempfer totally explained
Engelbert Kaempfer (
September 16,
1651 –
November 2,
1716) was a
German naturalist, traveller and
physician.
Early life
He was born at
Lemgo in the
principality of Lippe,
Westphalia, where his father was a
pastor. He studied at
Hameln,
Lüneburg,
Hamburg,
Lübeck and Danzig (
Gdansk), and after graduating Ph.D. at
Kraków, spent four years at
Königsberg in
Prussia, studying
medicine and
natural science.
Travels
Persia
In
1681 he visited
Uppsala in
Sweden, where he was offered inducements to settle; but his desire for foreign travel led him to become secretary to the embassy which Charles XI sent through
Russia to
Persia in
1683. He reached Persia by way of
Moscow,
Kazan and
Astrakhan, landing at
Nizabad in
Dagestan after a voyage in the
Caspian Sea; from
Shemakha in
Shirvan he made an expedition to the
Baku peninsula, being perhaps the first modern
scientist to visit these fields of eternal fire. In
1684 he arrived in
Isfahan, then the Persian capital. When after a stay of more than a year the Swedish embassy prepared to return, Kaempfer joined the fleet of the
Dutch East India Company in the
Persian Gulf as chief
surgeon, and in spite of fever caught at
Bander Abbasi he found opportunity to see something of
Arabia and of many of the western coast-lands of
India.
Japan
In September
1689 he reached
Batavia; spent the following winter studying
Javanese natural history, and in May
1690 set out for
Japan as physician to the embassy, sent yearly to that country by the Dutch. En route to Japan, the ship in which he sailed touched at
Siam, whose capital he visited; Here he recorded his meeting with the
Siamese Minister and former ambassador to
France Kosa Pan.. In September
1690 he arrived at the coast of
Nagasaki, the only Japanese port then open to foreigners.
Kaempfer stayed two years in Japan, during which time he twice visited
Edo and the
Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi there. When he visited
Buddhist monks in Nagasaki in February
1691, he was the first western scientist to describe the tree
Ginkgo biloba - scientists at the time thought that all Ginkgo species were extinct. He brought some Ginkgo seeds back that were planted in the
botanical garden in
Utrecht and can still be seen today. During his stay in Japan, his tact, diplomacy and medical skill overcame the cultural reserve of the Japanese, and enabled him to elicit much valuable information. In November
1692 he left Japan for
Java.
Return to Europe
After ten years abroad, Kaemfper returned to Europe in 1693, landing at
Amsterdam. He was awarded a medical degree at the
University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
Kaempfer settled down in his native city of Lemgo, where he became the physician of the Count of
Lippe. In Germany he published the book
Amoenitatum exoticarum (Lemgo 1712) which showed an illustration of a
camellia and introduced 23 varieties. Notable for its description of the
electric eel,
acupuncture, and
moxibustion. His systematic description of
tea (as well as his other work on Japanese plants) was praised by
Linnaeus, who adopted the Kaempfer-devised nomenclature.
In 1716, Kaempfer died at Lemgo.
Manuscripts
At Kaempfer's death his mostly unpublished manuscripts were purchased by Sir
Hans Sloane, and conveyed to England. Among them was a History of Japan, translated from the manuscript into English by J.G. Scheuchzer and published at London, in 2 vols., in
1727. The original German has never been published, the extant German version being taken from the English. Besides Japanese history, this book contains a description of the political, social and physical state of the country in the 17th century. For upwards of a hundred years it remained the chief source of information for the general reader, and is still not wholly obsolete. A life of the author is prefixed to the History. Kaempfer's original manuscripts are currently kept in the
British Museum.
Further Information
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