Adam Brand (explorer)

Adam Brand (born before 1692 in Lübeck- died 1746 in Königsberg ) was a German merchant and explorer. He was born in Lübeck and undertook several trading journeys to Moscow.[1]

In 1692 the czar Peter the Great entrusted Eberhard Isbrand Ides with a mission to the Kangxi Emperor of China. Brand accompanied him as secretary of the embassy. Ides and his mission, which consisted of more than 250 noblemen, advisors, merchants and soldiers, reached Beijing, the capital city of the Empire, in 1693 after 18 months of travel. The main achievement of the embassy was that the Russians were allowed to carry business in Beijing with a caravan of maximum 200 members every three years.[2]

In 1697 Brand was made court councillor and commercial councillor (Hofrath and Commerzienrath respectively (honorary titles bestowed by the Prussian state)). Although he had been chosen to act as Prussian envoy to Persia, the death of King Frederic I of Prussia in 1713 led to this project never being materialised.[1]

He then went to reside at Königsberg where he ended his days in 1746.[1][3]

Work

Brand is the author of one of the two eyewitness accounts existing on Eberhard Isbrand Ides' journey to China (the other one was written by Ides himself).[4] His report, written in German, to which was added an opuscule by H. W. Ludolff entitled "Curieuse Beschreibung der natürlichen Dingen Rußlands" (Curious observations concerning the products of Russia), was first published in the year 1698 in Hamburg.[5] This report became extremely popular in the Western Europe.[2] It was quickly translated into various European languages including English (1698 and 1707), French (1699) and Dutch (1699).Versions of it were also included in English (1705) and Spanish (1701) collections of travels and voyages.[6] Brand sent an extract from his manuscript to Leibniz who translated it into Latin and inserted it in his work Novissima Sinica (1697).[3]

List of works

Translations

Into English

Into French

Into Dutch

References
  1. Löwenberg, Julius (1876). "Brand, Adam". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Band 3. Leipzig: Dunder & Qumblot, p. 236.
  2. Bremmer, Jan N. (2003). The rise and fall of the afterlife. London and New York: Routledge, p.28. ISBN 978-0415141482.
  3. Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne vol.21. Paris: Chez L. G. Michaud, p. 167. 1818.
  4. Donald F. Lach, Edwin J. Van Kley (1965). Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume III: A Century of Advance. Book 1: Trade, Missions, Literature. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, p.503. ISBN 978-0226467658.
  5. Hundt, Michael (1999). Beschreibung der dreijährigen chinesischen Reise: die russische Gesandtschaft von Moskau nach Peking 1692 bis 1695 in den Darstellungen von Eberhard Isbrand Ides und Adam Brand. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, p.68. ISBN 978-3515073967.
  6. Hundt, pp. 69 and 77.
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