Siebold, Philipp Franz Van

Related Category: Geography: Biographies

(fē´lĭp fränts fen zē´bôlt), 1796–1866, German naturalist and physician; son of A. E. von Siebold. He was noted for his studies of the natural history, ethnography, and language of Japan, a country then very little known to Europeans. First there from 1823 to 1830 as a member of a scientific expedition sent by the Dutch East India Company, he served on a second visit (1859–62) as mediator between Japan and the European powers. Chief of his authoritative works is Nippon: Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan (20 parts, 1832–54; new ed., 5 vol., 1930–31).

See study by L. B. Holthuis and T. Sakai (1970).