MARINI (Jean Philippe de). A new and curious history of the kingdoms of Tunquin and Lao... Paris, Gervais Clouzier, 1666. In-4° bound in full brown basane, spine ribbed and gilt, speckled tr. [10] - 436 pp. One of the first European accounts detailing the little-known kingdoms of Tunquin (Tonkin, northern Vietnam) and Laos, in which the author emphasises the natural wealth and political fragility of this territory. Marini, following in the missionary tradition of Baldinotti, Borri and de Rhodes, offers a description combining adventure stories and geographical and ethnographic observations of seventeenth-century Vietnam, where he lived for eleven years. Clean copy, rubbing to binding. Armorial bookplate and manuscript of the Château d'Auvernier. Provenance: Library of the Château d'Auvernier Good condition despite some rubbing to the binding Binding: boards, edges, spine ends and nerves rubbed Scratches and stains on boards Small isolated worm gallery in the leather of the lower cover Inside pages: Very clean Handwritten annotations in black ink in the margins of pages 183-184 Several leaves slightly browned on the last 100 pages or so