dutch physician and writer olfert dapper was born in january 1636 in amsterdam, dutch republic. he never travelled outside the netherlands but used reports by jesuit missionaries and dutch explorers to write books about world history and geography. his book 'description of africa' (1668) is a key text for african studies and one of the most authoritative 17th-century accounts on africa published in dutch. translations appeared in english, french, and german. he also wrote about china, india, persia, georgia, and arabia. dapper was buried on 29 december 1689 in amsterdam.