
AFRICA
FIRST to
Timbuktu & Back
(“A
Temboctou”). Caillié, René Auguste. Journal
d'un voyage a Temboctou et a Jenné, dans l'Afrique Centrale, précédé
d'observations faites chez les Maures Braknas, les Nalous et d'autres peuples;
pendant les années 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828. Paris: L'Imprimerie Royale,
1830. 8vo (21.1 cm, 8.25"). 3 vols. I: Frontis., [4], xii, 472, [4] pp. II: [4],
426 pp. III: [4], 404, [2] pp. (lacking 5 plates and map).
$1500.00
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
First edition. Caillié, a French explorer and adventurer inspired by a boyhood love of Robinson Crusoe, spent eight months in Senegal posing as a convert to Islam and learning Arabic; he was also the first modern European traveller to make a successful voyage to Timbuktu and back — Maj. Gordon Lang preceded him to the city, but was murdered during his travel home. Caillié was
awarded the Société de Géographie de Paris prize of 10,000 francs for his completed trip, despite his description of his travels through Senegal, Mali, and the Sahara's having been met with some skepticism in his native France; the travelogue was better received in England, and very popular in translation there.
Vol. I opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the author.
Howgego, II, C2. Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. Five plates and one map lacking (frontispiece present); two leaves each with tear along inner margin, not touching text; foxed throughout but without embrittlement.
(24387)
Back to Africa?
American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Colour of the United States. [drop-title] Memorial of the President and Board of Managers of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Colour of the United States. January 14, 1817. Read and ordered to lie on the table. [Washington: William A. Davis, 1817]. 8vo. 5 pp.
$175.00
An early document of the American Colonization Society, founded
in December 1816. The memorial urges the transport of free blacks to Africa:
“Those great ends, it is conceived, may be accomplished by making adequate
provision for planting, in some salubrious and and [sic] fertile region, a colony,
to be composed of such ... persons as may choose to emigrate; and for extending
to it the authority and protection of the United States, until it have attained
sufficient strength and consistency to be left in a state of independence.”
Signed in type on p. 5: “Bush. Washington, president.” Government
document: House document (United States. Congress. House); 14th Congress, 2nd
session, no. 37. Printed at head of title in square brackets: 37.
Click
the image to the left
for an enlargement.
Shaw & Shoemaker 42652. Removed from a nonce volume;
inner edge slightly irregular. Leaves once separated, now re-attached at inner
edge with transparent tape. Clean, with only a little darkening along inner
margins. (18246)

The
Beginning of
Demographic
Studies
Botero, Giovanni. Relaciones universales del mundo ... primera y segunda parte. Valladolid: Impresso por los herederos de Diego Fernandez de Cordoua, 1603–1599. Folio (27 cm; 10.5"). [4], 207, 110 ff. (without final blank and without the maps).
$1875.00
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Botero (1540–1617) was an Italian thinker, priest, poet, and diplomat, and after 1580 an expelled Jesuit. His Relaciones universales del mondo, originally published 1594 to 1595 in Italian, tells of the “universal church” (i.e., Catholicism) in various parts of the world, including America, the Old World, India, the circum-Mediterranean, Africa, China, the Philippines, Japan, and Southeast Asia, but also England, Scotland, Ireland, and “the realm of Prester John.” More than a few scholars view this as one of the first demographic studies.
This first edition, second issue in Spanish is the translation of Diego de Aguiar. It is composed of the sheets of first edition of 1600–1599 with a new title-page. Printed in roman type, double-column format, it offers a liberal sprinkling of large woodcut initials, some of which are historiated.
Provenance: 19th-century private ownership stamp on verso of title-leaf; bookplate of the John Carter Brown Library (with small release stamp) on the front pastedown.
Alden & Landis, European Americana, 603/17; Sabin 6809; Palau 33704; Medina, BHA, 468. 18th-century mottled sheep, raised bands, gilt spine extra; spine gorgeously bright and covers with some abrasions. Title-page and final leaf with foremargins excised and the leaves mounted; first folio 113 with short tears repaired with with cello tape now darkened. Occasional foxing and the other odd spot or stain only; all edges red and a blue ribbon placemarker. A text volume only, this lacks the maps and is priced accordingly; it is an important and famous work with a good provenance in an otherwise very handsome copy, for the reader. (28307)

How
They Live in
Africa,
Japan,
China,
Etc.
Carpenter, Frank G. Around the world with the children: An introduction to geography. New York: American Book Co., (© 1924). 4to. Col. frontis. (incl. in pagination), x, 134 pp.; illus.
$25.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Revised edition of this entertaining survey of children's daily lives in various global cultures, starting out in the United States and featuring numerous black-and-white and four full-page color illustrations.
Publisher's tan cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in red; corners and spine extremities rubbed, spine darkened, back cover with small stain. Pages age-toned, with one small inked annotation. (25184)

A Tour of French Colonial Africa
Gide, André. Travels in the Congo. New York: Modern Age Books, Inc., 1937. 12mo. [12], 305, [4] pp.
$30.00
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“Red Seal” paperback edition of this classic travelogue, translated from the original French by Dorothy Bussy.
Publisher's printed paper wrappers, in original printed dust wrapper; dust wrapper partially split along front outer fold and nicked at corners. Pages age-toned. (28931)

Mrs. Hening on
African Missions
Hening, Mrs. E.F. History of the African mission of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, with memoirs of deceased missionaries, and notices of native customs. New York: Stanford & Swords, 1850. 12mo. xii, [13]-300 pp.; 1 fold. map.
$250.00
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“The object of the writer . . . has been, to present . . . the leading historical facts of the mission of the Protestant Episcopal church in western Africa.” — Preface to first edition, with copyright date 1849. The ardor of the missionaries and the sheer arduousness of their effort are both palpable here; many missionary deaths are recounted, and an appendix discussing the effects of the African climate on “the European constitution” gives this interest as to the history of medicine.
Library Company, Afro-Americana, 4726. Publisher's blind-stamped cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine and board edges sunned, cloth torn (repaired) and chipped at spine, spine with call number label. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, title-page and map each with rubber-stamp, back free endpaper with circulation slip. Map and a few other leaves lightly foxed. (19500)

Evaluating the American Colonization Society, 1833
Hodgkin, Thomas. An inquiry into the merits of the American Colonization Society: and a reply to the charges brought against it. With an account of the British African Colonization Society. London: J. & A. Arch; Harvey & Darton; Edmund Fray; & S. Highley, 1833. Small 8vo. 62 pp., map.
$350.00

Assessment of the American efforts in Liberia, with accounts by British and American visitors evaluating the success of the colony and its troubled beginnings. Ends with an
account of the British African Colonization Society's endeavors so one can have a basis for measurement and comparison.
Click the image for an enlargement.
The map is of the colony of Liberia with an inset plan of Monrovia.
Sabin 32351; Library Company, Afro-Americana (rev. ed.), 4863. Removed from a nonce volume. Small water splatter stain in lower inner area of title-page, else notably nice and clean. (26898)
[Justel, Henri, ed.].
Recueil de divers voyages faits en Afrique et en l’Amerique, qui
n’ont point esté encore publiez.... Paris: Louis Billaine, 1674.
4to (23.7 cm, 9.4"). á4ã4A–Z4Aa–Hh4
Ii2Kk4Ll21§–4§45§2
**A–**C4 a2b–g4 *A–*K4L2;
[8] ff., 262, 35, [1 (blank)] 23, [1 (blank)], 49, [1 (blank)] pp., [1] f., 81,
[1 (blank)] pp., 3 fold. plans, 4 maps (3 fold.), 9 plts.
$6500.00
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First edition of this collection of significant and interesting voyages, edited by a scholar and book collector who served in the employ of Louis XIV before being appointed Keeper of the King’s Library at St. James by Charles II. The compilation includes French-language travelogues of Barbados, the Nile River, Ethiopia, “l’Empire du Prète-Jean,” Guiana, Jamaica, and the English colonies, with illustrations including banana and palmetto trees, Caribbean pottery, and maps of New England, Jamaica (including Florida and the Antilles), and Barbados.
Some of both the voyages and the maps make their first published appearances here—among them the New England map depicting the Maryland and Virginia coastlines, engraved by R. Michault after one contained in Richard Blome’s Description of the Island of Jamaica, part of which work appears here translated into French.
Altogether, a volume notable both for its strong African and North American content and for the aesthetic appeal of its plates and pleasingly ornamented typography.
Sabin 36944; Alden & Landis 674/159; Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection 68; Baer, 17th-Century Maryland, 78. Recent 17th-century style mottled calf with covers framed in a gilt roll and double-panelled in gilt fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons,; spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped decorative devices. Several pages (not including title) and the versos of a few plates stamped by a now-defunct institution. Paper slightly embrittled. Light waterstaining to a number of leaves and plates, mostly in margins; the first map with two repairs. One leaf (blank?) prior to Colonies Angloises excised; lacking the folding map of the Nile. A good copy, in a handsome binding of recent vintage and contemporaneous style. (8746)

WORLD MYTHOLOGY — 8 Vols. & Thousands of Entries
Pozzoli, Giovanni; Felice Romani; Antonio Peracchi, et al. Dizionario storico-mitologico di tutti i popoli del mondo. Livorno: Stamperia Vignozzi, 1824–28. 8 vols. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). I: 580 pp. II: 581–1163, [1] pp. (pp. 1057–64 repeated in place of pp. 1065–72). III: [1165]–1708 pp. (pagination 1551–52 repeated, 1687–88 skipped). IV: [1709]–2342 pp. V: 2351–3086 pp. (pagination skips 2519–26). VI: 3087–3855 pp. (pagination skips 3407–08). VII: 576 pp. VIII: 577–1074 pp.
$2500.00
Click the middle and right hand-images for enlargements.
Second edition of this classic dictionary of comparative mythology,
a hefty collection of the deities, heroes, tales, festivals, antiquities, and
other folklore of numerous cultures and countries including Mexico, Peru, America,
Africa,
India, Japan, China, etc, along with Jewish, Greek, and Roman antiquities. The
foundation of the work was François Noel's Dictionnaire de la Fable;
copious additions and corrections were made by Pozzoli, Romani (the famed poet,
scholar, and librettist for La Scala), and Peracchi (another librettist). The
resulting encyclopedic endeavor was originally published from 1809–27
under the title Dizionario d'ogni mitologia e antichità incominciato,
according to Graesse and Brunet, who both give Pozzoli's first name as Girolamo.
This set includes two volumes of supplemental text, adding a number of entries.
The first edition was followed by two volumes of supplemental plates, not
present here and not called for: Graesse describes this edition as “sans
grav.”
The pagination is erratic in a number of places; there is a numbering gap
from 2342 to 2351 between vols. IV and V, but the text and signatures are
uninterrupted.
Uncommon:
OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this second edition.
Provenance:
Most volumes with small inked ownership inscription in an outer margin:
“G.R.W.” the mark of William Rollinson Whittingham (1805–79),
fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and an enthusiastic book collector.
Brunet, IV, 851; Graesse, V, 429. Not in Sabin. Contemporary
half binding, recently rebacked with tan paper, spines with printed paper
labels; boards rubbed and faded with small chips, one vol. with front cover
waterstained. Foxing almost throughout, generally no worse than moderate;
light waterstaining in upper margins of vol. I; one leaf in vol. VII with
lower outer portion torn away, with loss of words from about 18 lines on each
side. Vol. II with printer's error replacing pp. 1065–72 with duplicates
of pp. 1057–64; pagination erratic in other places. Most vols. with
ownership mark as above; vol. VI with one pencilled and one inked marginal
annotation. (25862)
Salt, Henry. A voyage to Abyssinia, and travels into the interior of that country, executed under the orders of the British government, in the years
1809 and 1810; in which are included, an account of the Portuguese settlements on the east coast of Africa .... Philadelphia: M. Carey; Boston: Wells & Lilly (pr. by Lydia R. Bailey), 1816. 8vo (23.5 cm, 9.25"). 24, 454 pp.; fold. map.,
illus.
$1250.00
First U.S. edition and printed by Lydia Bailey, following the London first of 1814. Salt, a British traveller and Egyptologist, first visited Ethiopia in 1805, and returned in 1809 on a diplomatic mission intended to promote ties between the British government and the Emperor of Abyssinia. The Voyage gives Salt’s observations of Ethiopian customs, manners, dress, cuisine, and music, along with the factual details of his diplomatic achievements — or lack thereof, in terms of concrete agreements — followed by an appendix comparing vocabulary words from various languages spoken along “the Coast of Africa, from Mosambique to the borders of Egypt, with a few others spoken in the Interior of that Continent” (p. 395).
This is an untrimmed copy in original boards, with
24 pages of advertising for Carey publications bound in at the front of the volume. The preliminary map, engraved by John Bower, has hand-colored border lines; this American edition does not call for the plates found in the English first, but does include in-text depictions of several “Ethiopic inscriptions.”
Shaw & Shoemaker 33864; NSTC 2S3118. Publisher’s quarter tan paper over light blue paper–covered sides; front cover detached and back joint cracked, binding spotted, paper cracked and split along spine, spine label now absent and replaced with hand-inked title, spine with later paper shelving label. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1829. Half-title with portion of outer margin torn away (not touching text) and laid in. Map lightly foxed, with two short tears along folds. Pages age-toned, with occasional spots of foxing.
Scotland.
Parliament. Committee concerning the African & Indian Company.
Broadside. Begins: “Minuts [sic]
of the proceedings in Parliament Wednesday 26. February 1707....”Edinburgh:
Heirs of Andrew Anderson, 1707. Folio (31 cm, 12.1"). [1] p.
$500.00
Number 78 (of 89) of the 1706–07 minutes, this is a brief
account of a committee report “anent the Accompts”of a Scottish company
trading to Africa and the Indies, authorized for printing by Andrew Anderson
by decree of Sir James Murray, Lord Clerk Register. Many of the Parliamentary
documents printed by Anderson and heirs display the same misspelling of minutes
as seen in the header of this example.
ESTC T78547 (for holdings of complete sets). Tipped onto
a leaf of 19th-century paper; now in a Mylar folder. Lower margin and
bottom of outer margin slightly tattered to a curve; otherwise relatively
minor creasing, soiling.
A
Swede
in South Africa
Scottish
Edition
Sparrman, Anders. A voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, towards the Antarctic polar circle, and round the world: But chiefly into the country of the Hottentots and Caffres, from the year 1772, to 1776...translated from the Swedish original. Perth: Pr. by R. Morison, Jr. for R. Morison & Son, G. Mudie, & J. Lackington, 1789. 12mo (19 cm, 7.5"). I: Map, frontis., xx, 264 pp.; 2 plts. II: vi, 260 (i.e., 258) pp., [1] f.; 7 plts.
$1300.00
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Rare first Scottish edition of this travelogue, written by a Swedish
naturalist and pupil of Linnaeus. Sparrman traveled to the Cape ostensibly to
tutor children, with his real goal being “to investigate the Works of Nature
in this remote corner of the globe,” as the preface puts it. In this journal
of his travels he provides a wealth of sociological and naturalistic observations,
and takes special pains to debunk previously supplied tales that he considers
incorrect.
An
appendix of examples of Hottentot and Caffre language is also supplied.
The
engraved plates include illustrations of a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, dwarf
mice, and Hottentot weaponry, as well as an oversized folding landscape and
a map of the territory covered by the author.
ESTC T131019. Recently rebound in quarter calf over marbled paper
sides, spines with gilt-stamped title labels. Title-page and two others of
vol. I stamped by a now-defunct institution; one page with outer margin reinforced.
Small hole to map. Title-page of vol. II with topmost left portion of title
repaired and replaced in facsimile; title-page and five others stamped. Pagination
skips in vol. II from 136 to 139. A few minor spots of foxing to plates; one
plate with short edge tear carefully repaired.
(Again??)
Back to Africa?
United States. Congress. [drop-title] Report on colonizing the free people of colour of the United States. February 11, 1817. Read, and committed to a committee of the whole House on Monday next. [Washington: William A. Davis, 1817]. 8vo. 5 pp.
$200.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
An early document of the American Colonization Society, founded in December 1816. Concerns the feasibility of negotiating with Great Britain to establish a colony of free blacks in Sierra Leone. Government document: House document (United States. Congress. House); 14th Congress, 2nd session, no. 78. Printed at head of title: [78].
Shaw & Shoemaker 42738; Library Company, Afro-Americana, 10602. Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly pencilled librarian's notation on p. [1]. Leaves separated. (18440)
Search
& Seizure
Van Buren, Martin (President, 18371841). [drop-title] Search or seizure of American vessels on coast of Africa, &c. Message from the President of the United States, transmitting a report from the Secretary of State, in relation to seizures or search of American vessels, &c. March 3, 1841. Read, and laid upon the table. [Washington, 1841]. 8vo. 766 pp.
$400.00


The ships were being stopped as part of England's attempts to end the slave trade. Correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Legation of the United States in London, the British Legation at Washington, and the United States Consulate at Havana. Correspondence dates from 12 February 1836 to 1 March 1841. Government document: 26th Congress, 2d Session. Doc. No. 115. Ho. of Reps. Executive.
Click
the image
for an enlargement.
Disbound; three holes in inner margin, not touching text. Ink notation and numeral on first page. Some dog-earing and tattering in corners and outer margins. Pencillings in several margins. Occasional mild spotting. Now housed in a simple archival phase box. (13455)

FIRST
Grammar *&*
Vocabulary of this
African
Language?
Wilson, John Leighton. A grammar of the Mpongwe language, with vocabularies. New York: Snowden & Prall, printers, 1847. 8vo. 94 pp., 2 fold. tables.
$675.00
Click the images for enlargements.
One of the first books printed in the Mpongwe dialect of the Myene language spoken by a small group of Bantus living in Gabon. It is also almost certainly the first published grammar of any dialect of this African language. According to the 1848 report of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, John Leighton Wilson was chiefly responsible for
preparing this for publication.
The two folding tables are printed on very thin tissue or “tracing”-like paper.
Publisher's marbled paper boards, a little abraded and dust-soiled and with evidence of an old shelving label sometime removed from front cover; respined with black tape. Ex-library with stamps on new front endpaper, a front fly-leaf, and base of title-page; four-digit number stamped in lower margin of contents page. No other markings. (30272)
And
to Close, Two Inexpensive Little
Volumes . . .
(Africa–East). Ames, Evelyn.
A glimpse of Eden. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, (1967).
$18.00
Illustrated. Second printing. Picture at left.
(Africa). Kane, Robert.
Africa A to Z. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1961.
$10.00
First edition. Endpaper maps. Black and white photos. Front cover
soiled.
For
more "Travel Lite" (not necessarily African) —
click here.
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