Orientalism in Louis XIV's France

Download or read book Orientalism in Louis XIV's France written by Nicholas Dew and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-07-02 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before the Enlightenment, and before the imperialism of the later eighteenth century, how did European readers find out about the varied cultures of Asia? Orientalism in Louis XIV's France presents a history of Oriental studies in seventeenth-century France, mapping the place within the intellectual culture of the period that was given to studies of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Chinese texts, as well as writings on Mughal India. The Orientalist writers studied here produced books that would become sources used throughout the eighteenth century. Nicholas Dew places these scholars in their own context as members of the "republic of letters" in the age of the scientific revolution and the early Enlightenment.