Adam Brand (explorer)


Adam Brand was a German merchant and explorer. He was born in Lübeck and undertook several trading journeys to Moscow.
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.
In 1697 Brand was made court councillor and commercial councillor. 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.
He then went to reside at Königsberg where he ended his days in 1746.

Work

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

List of works

Into English

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