Engelbert Kaempfer

Engelbert Kaempfer (September 16, 1651 – November 2, 1716) was a German naturalist, physician, and explorer writer known for his tour of Russia, Persia, India, South-East Asia, and Japan between 1683 and 1693.

He wrote two books about his travels. Amoenitatum Exoticarum, published in 1712, is important for its medical observations and the first extensive description of Japanese plants (Flora Japonica). His History of Japan, published posthumously in 1727, was the chief source of Western knowledge about the country throughout the 18th and mid-19th centuries when it was closed to foreigners.

Kaempfer was born at Lemgo in the principality of Lippe, Westphalia. His father was a pastor and his mother helped support the congregation. He studied at Hameln, Lüneburg, Hamburg, Lübeck and Danzig (Gdańsk), and after graduating at Kraków, spent four years at Königsberg in Prussia, studying medicine and natural science.

In 1681, Kaempfer visited Uppsala in Sweden, where he was offered inducements to settle. His desire for foreign travel led him to become secretary to the second embassy of the Swedish ambassador Ludvig Fabritius, whom Charles XI sent through Russia to Persia in 1683. Kaempfer's travelogue of this embassy was later published. He reached Persia by way of Moscow, Kazan and Astrakhan, landing at Nizabad 'in Dagestan' (though actually now in Azerbaijan) 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 the 'fields of eternal fire' around Baku. In 1684 Kaempfer reached Isfahan, then the Persian capital.

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