
VOYAGES
TRAVELS EXPLORATIONS
PLACES
A-D
E-H
I-J
K-O
P-Z
(Imaginary Travels are gathered under "IMAGINARY")
From
Boston
to London by Way
of
CADIZ:
A Voyage at Sea
(A
Manuscript “Log”). Walton, George. Manuscript
on paper, in English. “Journal of occurrences & observations, during
a voyage to Cadiz, in the Schooner Jane...”.
1794–95.
Folio (32.2 cm, 12.75"). [9] ff.
$1250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Manuscript travelogue: In
1794, Walton travelled to Cadiz aboard the schooner Jane, which was captained
by Thomas Cobb and departed from Boston via Four Point Channel. They passed
Cape St. Vincent “thirty six days & three hours since we left Boston”
and discovered on arrival a few days later at Cadiz that “we are to ride
a quarantine — nine Days — on account of the late melancholy Distemper
at Philadelphia”: the dreaded yellow fever, which had struck a few months
earlier in 1793, horrifying the world with its devastating effects, rapid spread,
and resistance to physicians' best efforts.
After staying in Cadiz for several months (a sojourn left undetailed here, with a teasingly blank gap of three pages), Walton departed for London aboard the Cross Isle, under Capt. Robert Leake. That passage was more dramatic than the first, involving sightings of Spanish and French ships of war and a collision between the brigantine Betsy of Hull and the Crescent.
Many entries in this journal are dedicated to the weather (including the types and directions of wind encountered) and to record of Walton's dining companions at various points along the way (“Capt. Silvester, onboard the General Washington,” among others). Others mention the commemoration of the birthday of “the late unfortunate Queen of France . . . celebrated with all the Splendor of Cadiz,” the cargo rescued from the unfortunate Betsy (“very valuable, being of Silks & choice Goods of Leghorn”), and a stop at Cork.
Walton's serviceable script is generally decipherable throughout. The paper bears a Britannia watermark, sans motto or initials, resembling but not identical to Britannia examples in Churchill's Watermarks in Paper.
Sewn, with pencilled annotation on front wrapper; front wrapper
tattered and with an ink-spill along outer edge of front wrapper and on first
text page partially obscuring a few words of text. Folded, with short tears
starting along some folds; light waterstaining to upper outer corners and
on a couple of leaves elsewhere; lower corners bumped.
An
evocative “read”! (25689)
This entry is repeated in the
“PZ” section of this
catalogue . . .



Famous for Its
Maps of the Holy Land
& Based on Sources Now Lost
Adrichem (a.k.a. Adrichom), Christiaan van. Theatrum Terrae Sanctae et biblicarum historiarum cum tabulis geographicis aere expressis. [colophon: Coloniae Agrippinae: Officina Birckmannica, sumptibus Hermanni Mylij, 1628]. Folio (37 cm; 14.5"). [6] ff., 256 pp., [15] ff.; 12 fold. or double-page engr. maps.
$10,000.00
Next to the last edition, and fifth overall, of Adrichem's important and influential work on the Holy Land. Adrichem (1533–85) was a Delft-born priest (a.k.a. Christianus Crucius) who wrote several works on Jerusalem and the Holy Land.
Theatrum Terrae Sanctae is famous for its engraved maps, but the work is justly sought for its descriptions of Palestine and the antiquities of Jerusalem. Additionally the work contains a chronology from Adam to 1585, the year of the author's death.

First published in 1590, Theatrum Terrae Sanctae had subsequent editions in 1593, 1600, 1613, 1628, and 1682; and was translated in several languages, including English. Because Adrichem used contemporary sources that are now lost, the work is important for the history of Palestine and Israel during the last half of the 16th century.
The work begins with an engraved allegorical title-page, has woodcut initials and tailpieces, and bears
12 folding or double-page engraved maps. The text is printed in roman type in double-column format.
VD17 12:119393Z; Bibliographia Belgica A 131; Tobler 210; Röhricht 210–11. Recent full black morocco, tooled in coppery gilt old style. Some browning to maps, a few very old repairs to same; endpapers and some other leaves with instances of darkening at edges, the leaf “behind” the largest folding element showing this most strikingly (and showing it extended farthest into the margins). Foremargins brittle and some with short tears or with strengthening strips.
In all, a good+ copy and a very handsome volume. (24104)

16th-Century Tour of Italy — Venice Is an Island
Alberti, Leandro. Descrittione di tutta l'Italia & isole pertinenti ad essa. In Venetia: Appresso Gio. Maria Leni, 1577. 4to (21.7 cm, 8.5"). 2 vols. in 1. [303], 503, [1(blank)], 69 (i.e., 96), [4] ff.
$2500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Early, expanded edition, following the first of 1550: An important and widely read account of Italy, written by a Dominican monk and Bolognese scholar who spoke at length about his home city in addition to the other major regions of the country. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1917) online notes that the work contains “many valuable topographical and archaeological observations.”
Nicely printed in italic type (without maps), the work has a good index. The separate title-page of vol. II gives Isole appartenenti alla Italia, dated 1576. Venice is treated here, as an island, not as part of “the mainland.”
Adams A475; Index Aurel. 102.349. Contemporary vellum, worn and darkened, lacking ties. Hinges (inside) with insect damage causing partial opening, text block starting to pull away from spine. Front free endpaper with two inked ownership inscriptions, one dated 1620 and one 1898. Small area of worming to upper inner margins of about 40 leaves, minor and not approaching text. Scattered instances of early inked underlining and a very few marginalia, pages otherwise pleasingly clean. Ready for many more years of use! (26501)

Splendors
(Barbaric &
Otherwise) of
the
Russian Empire
[Alexander, William]. Costume of the Russian empire, illustrated by upwards of seventy richly coloured engravings. London: E. Harding et al., 1803. Folio (33.7 cm, 13.25"). [152] pp.; 70 col. plts. (of 73).
$2500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First
edition: Diglot
(i.e., in French and English) hand-colored plate book showcasing the ethnic
garb of Finland, Lapland, Estonia, Kamchatka, the Aleutian Islands, etc. Men,
women, and young children — and a “Female Schaman, or Sorceress,
of Krasnajarsk” — are all depicted in plates engraved by J. Dadley
and elaborately hand-colored; the designs for the plates were taken from a series
of engravings originally done for C.W. Müller's 1776 edition of Georgi's
Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen Reichs.
The explanatory text, which is generally attributed to William Alexander, often
includes descriptions of religious beliefs, alleged ethnic characteristics,
and
wedding
traditions. Many of these descriptions are decidedly focused
on the otherness of the practices in question; some achieve a level of
generalization that is rather breathtaking, e.g., “The Lapland women are
short, but often well formed, obliging, modest, and extremely irritable.”
Binding:
Publisher's straight-grained red morocco, covers framed in gilt-stamped Greek
key pattern, spine with gilt- and blind-stamped decorations; all edges gilt.
Lipperheide 1341; Abbey, Travel, 244. Binding overall rubbed and somewhat rough, front joint (outside) starting and back hinge (inside) likewise. Offsetting from plates, instances of light foxing and occasional soiling throughout. Plates 16, 29, and 39 excised some time ago, with faint pencil marks on contents list indicating their absence. An imperfect copy, still offering an array of engaging images and elegantly bound, with its sociologically intriguing text intact. (28807)

A Real Jungle Book
Allee, Warder C., & Marjorie Hill Allee. Jungle island.
Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., © 1925. 12mo. Frontis., x, 215, [1] pp.; illus.
$75.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Fact-based tropical adventures set on Barro Colorado Island in
Panama,
illustrated with numerous maps and half-tone photographic views. Mr. Allee was
a University of Chicago biologist and ecologist and he and his wife visited
and studied Barro Island as part of their recovery from the death of their 10-year
old son in 1913. The work is a mainstream University of Chicago school study
in ecology .
Signed binding:
Publisher's mushroom-colored cloth, front cover with jungle
vignette stamped in blue and title in green, spine with green-stamped title.
Binding signed with “H”: Frank Hazenplug (1874–1931).
Binding as above, minor wear
to edges and extremities. Front pastedown with inked gift inscription dated 1927. Pages age-toned with occasional smudges, endpapers spotted. (28932)

Extended MANUSCRIPT in an
UNCOMMON PHILIPPINE LANGUAGE
Antonio Lobato de Santo Tomás. Manuscript in Ibanag on paper: “Quinque sermones in quinque precipuis festivitatibus B. Maria Virginis. Quibus accedunt sermo in feria quarta cinerumz et sermo in dominica 2o post octavam trinitatis. Per R. P. fray Antoniium Lobatao de Sto. Thomas. Tuguegarao, The Philippines: 1776–80. Small 4to. 196 pp.
$30,000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Precious few manuscript sources in the Ibanag language survive from the Spanish colonial era of the Philippines. Only a handful of missionaries worked in the region of the northeastern Philippine provinces of Isabela and Cagayan, most notably in Tuguegarao City, Solana, Cabagan, and Ilagan, where the language was/is spoken; and not all mastered the tongue. Fray Antonio Lobato was one of those who did and it was he who took Fr. José Bugarin's Ibanag–Spanish dictionary, created in the previous century, and edited it to a usable work — though the result was not published until the 19th century, and, apparently, no other work was published in the language during the 16th, 17th, or 18th centuries.
The importance, then, of
a large body of work set down in the Ibanag language, from the 18th century and as written/spoken by one of the seminal scholars of the language, should be obvious for anyone researching the language as understood by missionaries, as used by missionaries, as influenced by Spanish, and as held out by Spaniards of authority as the model of Ibanag speech to be emulated. Beyond this, of course, is the interest of the sermons themselves, letting us see what the Ibanaq speakers were hearing from their missionaries — or, at least, this missionary — in this place, in this period.
Fray Antonio's sermons are here written in a clear, easy to read hand and the dates of composition or of delivery are often noted.
Provenance: A signature “Fr. Antonio Lobato de Sto. Thomas” appears at the bottom of the last page and is almost certainly that of the the friar himself, which would mean that this is his autograph manuscript of the sermons.
Contemporary very stiff vellum. Binding gnawed by a rodent with loss. Written on a good quality European paper, with some soiling and an occasional stain. No faults are serious and overall this is a remarkably good survival for an 18th-century Philippines manuscript. Now housed in a blue cloth clamshell box. (23668)
Baldaeus, Philippus. Wahrhaftige ausführliche beschreibung der berühmten ostindischen kusten Malabar und Coromandel, als auch der insel Zeylon... Amsterdam: Brey Johannes Janssonius & Joannes von Someren, 1672. Folio (31.5 cm, 12.5"). *4 A–Z4 Aa–Zz4 Aaa–Zzz4 Aaaa–Fff4 Gggg6 2*4 **4 ***4; [3] ff., 610 pp., [13] ff., 16 fold. maps/plans, 18 fold. plts., and in-text illus.
$5000.00
Missionary and keen observer, Phillipus Baldaeus (1632–72), recounts his travels in and to, and the history of the east coast of Malabar and Roromandel, the island of Ceylon, and the adjacent kingdoms and principalities. He tells of the cities, harbors, buildings, temples, natural history and society. In doing so, he demonstrates a fascination with the Hindu religion, its gods, ceremonies, and beliefs.
Click any image for an enlargement.
The work is highly illustrated and the engravings, being
16 folding maps/plans, and 18 folding plates, are of battles, plans of fortresses, maps of areas, statutes, etc. Three double-page engraved tables are of scripts. The in-text illustrations, which are just as detailed and impactful, are numerous.
An important book on the rising Dutch presence in the East Indies and concomitant diminution of the Portuguese hegemony. This is the first edition in German; a Dutch-language edition also appeared in 1672.
Landwehr, VOC, 557. 18th-century calf, gilt spine extra. Binding shows wear, with abrasions and leather lost; joints starting. Once in a library and bearing the odd pencilling, but no stamps. Clean copy.
A PRB&M “FEATURED BOOK”
for others, click
here.

First U.S. Edition Getting to the North Pole
Barrington, Daines. The possibility of approaching the North Pole asserted ... a new edition. With an appendix, containing papers on the same subject, and on a northwest passage. New York: James Eastburn & Co. (pr. by Abraham Paul), 1818. 8vo (23.2 cm, 9.1"). 187, [1] pp.; 1 fold. map.
$300.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First American edition of Barrington's writings on attaining the North Pole, here in an updated and expanded version. The Honorable Daines Barrington, a member of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, compiled as many narratives of Arctic voyages (mostly Dutch) as he could find to make these scientific, navigational, and anecdotal arguments in favor of further expeditions to the northern latitudes. Originally published in 1775, Barrington's “proofs” — much debated at the time and afterwards — here appear supplemented with explorer and mountaineer Colonel Mark Beaufoy's papers on a northwest passage, among other articles.
A folded map of the top of the world as seen from the North Pole opens the volume; the title-page bears a wood-engraved vignette of armed explorers on an ice floe confronting a rather awkwardly depicted polar bear, signed by
Alexander Anderson.
Provenance: Front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription of John M. Fenton, dated 1825.
Shaw & Shoemaker 43240; Pomeroy, Alexander Anderson, 570. Publisher's quarter tan paper and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; binding mildly soiled, spine paper and label chipped, the whole nicely refurbished with losses to spine filled with appropriately toned paper, detached sewing support secured, joints reinforced, and worn extremities subtly repaired. Front fly-leaf with inscription as above. Map with some moderate foxing, and small chip out of upper margin (not touching image). Page edges untrimmed, a few signatures unopened; moderate to heavy foxing throughout but paper strong and good. (29221)

A Century “Pre”Nordhoff & Hall — Mutiny on the
Bounty, First U.S. Edition
Barrow, John, Sir. A description of Pitcairn's Island and its inhabitants. With an authentic account of the mutiny of the ship Bounty, and of the subsequent fortunes of the mutineers. New York: J. & J. Harper, 1832. 12mo (14.6 cm, 5.75"). [6 (adv.)], [2], [ix]–303, [1] pp.; 2 plts.
$200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First (and unauthorized) U.S. edition, following the 1831 London publication under the title The Eventful History of the Mutiny of the Bounty. This is “Harper's Stereotype Edition,” for the “Family Library” series; it is interesting that the firm pounced on something so fresh for that gathering.
The volume is illustrated with
two steel-engraved plates, one view of Tahiti and one of Pitcairn's Island.
American Imprints 11221; Hill, Pacific Voyages, 70. Publisher's speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges and extremities rubbed, spine darkened, spine leather with fine cracks, spine head covered with dark cloth tape extending onto sides. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, inked numerals on front free endpaper, title-page pressure-stamped. Pages with scattered spots of staining; last page with series title pencilled across — quite decoratively! (26390)

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
Click the images for enlargements.
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)

A Jesuit Pioneer in
India & Japan
Bouhours, Dominique. La vie de Saint François Xavier, de la Compagnie de Jésus, apostre des Indes et du Japon. Nouvelle édition. Paris: Chez Guillot, 1787. 12mo (16 cm, 6.5"). 2 (of 2) vols. I: 24, 442, [2] pp. (lacks frontis.) II: [4], 418, [1] pp.
$900.00

Later edition of this French Jesuit's biography of Saint Francis Xavier, in two volumes; first pu blished in Paris, in 1682, it is here complete in six books, with a “Table des Matières” at end of second volume. Per Sommervogel, it is the “edition du P. Brolier, qui a mis on tête la lettre de Condé au P. Talon sur cette Vie et l'a fait suivre d'observations.”
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia notes that Dominique Bouhours (1632–1702) was best known to English readers as the author of this much-reprinted work and an earlier life of Ignatius of Loyola; for a long time these were “the most widely circulated biographies” of the two saints. Bouhours also achieved prominence for his anti-Jansenist writings.
The pair of volumes were nicely printed, with some nicely engraved head- and tailpieces. The text offers sidenotes.
Rare. A search of OCLC records only two copies, of which this is one, now deaccessioned.
De Backer-Sommervogel, I, 1904–1905; Cordier, Bibliotheca Japonica, 146. Recent full calf, covers framed and panelled with single gilt fillets and with gilt-stamped corner fleurons; spines gilt extra, with gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, gilt publication date at foot, and elaborately gilt-tooled floral decorations in compartments; marbled endpapers. Tear in outer margin of pp. 269/270, just barely touching sidenotes; very occasional foxing; offsetting from leather of previous binding affecting first and last leaves at margins, including title-pages. Ex-library, with faint penciled notations on verso of title-page and at base of following page in each volume. Vol. I lacks the frontispiece portrait. Faults noted, still a good copy and in an attractive binding. (24526)
Bremer,
Fredrika. The homes of the New World; impressions of America.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1853. 12mo (20.2 cm, 7.9"). 2 vols. I: xii, 651,
[1 (blank)] pp. II: 654,2 (adv.) pp.
$350.00

First American edition. Howitt, an English Quaker, published a number of volumes of poetry; here she translates novelist Bremer’s epistolary“impressions of America” — Die Heimath in der Neuen Welt, being a “detailed and amiable record of an extensive tour,” as Howes describes it — from the original Swedish into English. Names are named, places are limned, the wrongs of slavery are a recurring motif.
Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.
The first London edition appeared in three volumes, but the present edition in two, as stated on the title-page.
Howes B-745. Publisher’s charcoal blind-stamped cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; cloth showing mild wear overall, with spine gilt attractively oxidized. Front free endpapers with pencilled owner’s inscription dated 1869. Pages slightly age-toned, with scattered small spots of staining. Quite a nice set.

“Original Productions of the American Press”
Buckingham, Joseph Tinker, comp. Miscellanies selected from the public journals. Boston: Joseph T. Buckingham, 1822–24. 12mo (18.1 cm, 7.15"). 2 vols. I: [4], [ix]–268 pp. II: [4], [ix]–256 pp.
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Collected American essays, poems,
travelogues, short stories,
biographies, humor, etc., gathered from newspapers around the country by Joseph
Buckingham (1779–1861), an influential Boston printer, journalist, and
politician. Many of the pieces are still entertaining, and most are highly evocative
of their milieu.
The two volumes, printed two years apart, are seldom now found together as
seen in the present uniformly bound set.
These
are the original first editions — not modern reprints.
Sabin 8905; Shoemaker 8211; Howes B-924. Slightly later
speckled sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather labels, housed in a recent
green cloth clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather spine label; bindings
scuffed, spines chipped, joints opening. Front hinge (inside) of vol. II reinforced.
Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers,
pressure-stamp on title-pages. One page with early inked inscription in lower
margin inked over; one leaf with lower margin excised. Intermittent smudges
and spots, some leaves age-toned, a few corners bumped or torn away, vol.
II with occasional small pencilled annotations — these volumes were
clearly read appreciatively. Their “imperfections” are characteristic
of extensive use, not abuse. (28164)

FIRST to
Timbuktu & Back
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)

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)

An American in Paris
Cass, Lewis. France, its king, court, and government, by an American. New York & London: Wiley & Putnam, 1840. 8vo. Frontis., 191, [1] pp.
$200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: Written by the U.S. minister to France.
A fine example of this delicate American binding.
Smith, American Travellers Abroad, C24. Publisher's embossed cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; corners slightly rubbed, with spine sunned. First and last several leaves moderately foxed. A very nice copy. (12939)

Snakes
Lost
Civilizations
& an
Adventuresome
Artist
Catherwood, Frederick. Views of ancient monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan. London: Frederick Catherwood, 1844. Folio extra. 25 colored plates.
$50,000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The images above show mattings; images below are “close-ups.”
Before Indiana Jones stirred our imagination about lost civilizations and their treasures, there were Frederick Catherwood and John Lloyd Stephens, whose explorations of the Maya ruins of Central America, Chiapas, and the Yucatan excited the Anglo-American world in the middle of the 19th century and helped spur the rediscovery of the Maya among the non–romance language nations. And it was Catherwood's illustrations that fixed forever what the temples and other buildings looked like to the Victorian-era and later visitors to the area.
Following the great success of Catherwood & Stephens' s two accounts of their travels in Maya land, Catherwood decided to convert his drawings to large-scale luxury prints, the illustrations in the two travel accounts having been in octavo format. In England he enlisted a crew of the best lithographers to transform his camera lucida drawings to grand, eye-filling lithographs, with George B. Moore, William Parrott, Thomas Shotter Boys, and Henry Warren among those putting the images on stone; he had no one less than Owen Jones design and accomplish the title-page, chromolithographed in red, blue, and gold.
This set of images is of the very rare colored issue on card stock.
Hill, Pacific Voyages, rev. ed., 263; Palau 50290; Sabin 11520; Tooley, English Books with Coloured Plates, 133. Plates were removed long ago from their binding (not present) and sold as a set of plates; all have been expertly conserved (conservator's report provided) and mounted on acid-free board, now housed in a custom clamshell case. The plates have been trimmed within the images by between one tenth and three tenths of an inch in each direction, letterpress descriptions and map lacking; the plates are
handsome beyond easy imagining and fascinating in the detail and care of their coloring. (29366)

From “La venida de Christo” to
1642
Cepeda, Francisco de. Resumpta historial de Espana, desde el diluvio hasta el ano de 1642. Madrid: Por Diego Diaz de la Carrera, 1654. 4to (20.5cm; 8"). [6], 175 ff. (lacks final blank).
$2000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
A chronicle of Spanish history to 1642, taking the “tale” along to a date rather late for the genre. Includes the obligatory mentions of the discovery of the New World and of Brazil and the conquests of Mexico and Peru, but 99.99% of the volume is about Spain (and Portugal).
Evidence of readership: A few marginal notes here and there. Some of these are commentary, some just a word so one can find a section again.
Palau 51561; Alden & Landis 654/36; Sabin 11696. Borba de Moraes(2) 173. Vellum over light boards with remnants of button and loop closures; text uniformly browned (but unembrittled). (28771)
Chardin, John. Voyages de Mr. le chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient. Paris: André Cailleau, 1723. 8vo (16.5 cm, 6.5"). 10 vols.
I: Frontis., [10], 254 pp.; 1 fold. map. II: 334 pp.; 4 fold. plts., 5 plts. III: 285, [1 (blank)] pp.; 4 fold. plts., 3 plts. IV: 280 pp.; 2 fold. plts., 3 plts. V: 312 pp.; 4 fold. tables, 5 plts. VI: 328 pp.; 4 plts. VII: [10], 15–448 [i.e.,
446] pp. VIII: 255, [1 (blank)] pp.; 10 fold. plts., 6 plts. IX: 308 pp.; 1 double-spread fold. plt., 8 fold. plts., 19 plts. X: [22], 3–220, [82 (index)] pp.
$4000.00
Single-click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
Attractive French edition of Sir John Chardin's Persian travelogue, originally published in 1686. Brunet calls the account, which covers Chardin's voyages through India, Russia, and Persia, "un des plus intéressants que l'on ait publiés" in the 18th century; the work was and continues to be a major source of information on contemporary Persian politics, government, religion, and culture.
The title-pages are printed in red and black, and the 10 volumes are illustrated with a total of 79 plates (many folding) and tables, including one map and one frontispiece.
Brunet, I, 1802. Contemporary speckled calf, spines extra gilt; edges, joints and extremities rubbed, leather in some cases cracked or starting along joints or chipped at spine extremities, two spines with compartments chipped. All edges speckled. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate, front free endpapers rubber-stamped and with inked ownership inscriptions dated [18]67, title-pages except for vol. I rubber-stamped, reverse of map in vol. I rubber-stamped, some vols. with first text page rubber-stamped. Additional plate (creased) laid in, seemingly excised from another work.

Capturing an Age
One Biography at a Time
[Clarke]. The Georgian era: Memoirs of the most eminent persons, who have flourished in Great Britain, from the accession of George the First to the demise of George the Fourth. London: Vizetelly, Branston, & Co., 1832–34. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.65"). 4 vols. I: Frontis., 582 pp.; 12 plts. II: Frontis., [2], 588 pp. III: Frontis., [2], 588 pp. IV: Frontis., 588 pp.
$450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First
edition: Concise
yet entertainingly anecdote-laden biographies recounting the accomplishments
and characters (foibles and all) of the most prominent figures of the age: nobles,
churchmen, politicians, dissenters, military and naval officers, jurists, physicians,
voyagers
and travelers, scientists, writers, economists, architects,
artists and musicians, etc. All the expectable princesses, duchesses, and countesses
are present, along with a handful of women represented in other categories —
the preponderance falling under the “Vocal Performers” and “Actors”
headings.
The first volume is illustrated with
12
plates each offering four rows
of small portraits, some intriguingly expressive; each volume opens with an
engraved frontispiece portrait of a royal George.
NSTC 2C23867. Recent textured maroon cloth, spines with
gilt-stamped black leather title and volume labels; title-pages institutionally
pressure- (not rubber-) stamped. Scattered light spots of staining,
pages generally clean; first few leaves of voI. \ II with outer margins chipped.
A
hefty, substantive evocation of Georgian life and times. (30012)

The Yucatan Franz Scholes & Robert Chamberlain
Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al decumbrimiento, conquista y organización de las antigua posesiones españolas de ultramar. Segunda serie. Tomo num. 13, II Relaciones de Yucatán. Madrid: Impresores de la Real Casa, 1900. 8vo. xvi, 414 pp.
$450.00
Click the interior images above for enlargements.
Major stand-alone volume from the DIU, containing the first publication
of the late 16th-century manuscript “Relaciones histório-geográficas
de las provincias de Yucatán,” here
extensively
annotated in pencil by Robert Chamberlain and with occasional
notes by France Scholes!
Provenance: First in the University
of Miami Library, deacessioned; then in the library of Robert Chamberlain
and later in that of France V. Scholes, both noted scholars of the Yucatán.
Their signatures are on the front free endpaper and their notes are penciled
in the margins of many pages.
Publisher's quarter cloth, printed paper-covered boards, and paper spine label, call number on spine. Boards worn and exposed at edges and corners. Surface crack down center of spine label; slight chipping on edges. Ex-library copy with pressure- and rubber-stamps, including the release stamp; bookplate on front pastedown, date due slip and remnants of charge pocket in the back. (24442)

GUIDE for Early Travellers to the
American “WEST”
Colton, Joseph H.; & John Calvin Smith. The western tourist and emigrant's guide; with a compendious gazetteer of the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, and the territories of Wisconsin and Iowa: being an accurate and concise description of each state, territory, and county, and an alphabetical arrangement of every city, town, post village or hamlet, the county in which situated, their distance from the capital of the state and from Washington city: also, describing all the principal stage routs [sic], canals, rail roads, and the distances between the towns: accompanied with a correct map, showing the lines of the United States' surveys, by J. Calvin Smith. New York: J.H. Colton, 1839. 12mo (15.5 cm; 6.125"). 180 pp.
$2250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of Colton's guidebook to the Old Northwest and Mississippi Valley, a work that was constantly updated and reissued throughout the middle third of the 19th century. The large hand-colored, folding map was the work of J. C. Smith and was engraved by Samuel Stiles. The text was stereotyped by Richard C. Valentine and Sherman & Smith printed the plates.
The map measures 45 x 58 cm (17.8125" x 23.1875" ) and is labelled “Guide through Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin & Iowa. Showing the township lines of the United States surveys, location of cities, towns, villages, post hamlets, canals, rail and stage roads.” It includes a table of steam boat routes and distances by water, and is embellished with a small vignette of “Maidens Rock — Lake Pepin on the Mississippi” (a bit enlargable above, significantly so at left).
If you were heading “West” in 1839 or the early 1840s, you probably had a copy of this to help you travel safely and expeditiously.
Sabin 82931; Howes S-615; Checklist of printed maps of the Middle West to 1900 1-0816; Karpinski, Bibliography of the printed maps of Michigan, 146. Publisher's green ribbed cloth covers stamped in blind with a plaque and lettered in gold. Old water crinkling to text block and some associated soiling. Map backed with Tengoju Japanese paper and the case binding with minor repairs using Japanese paper toned with acrylic. A delicate book and a very delicate map, now not delicate at all and housed in a blue cloth clamshell case with leather spine label. A good ++ copy of an important and scarce work. (24796)

Cortés' Second Letter: The Conquest of Mexico
Cortés, Hernando, & Peter Martyr. Praeclara Ferndinandi Cortesii De Nova Maris Oceani Hyspania Narratio. [colophon: Impressa in Nurimberga: per Fridericum Peypus], 1524. Folio (30.3 cm; 11.875" ). [4], 49, 12 leaves.
$40,000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The first Latin edition of Cortés's second letter, after its original Spanish-language publication in Seville in 1522; the work was translated by Petrus Savorgnanus, Secretary to the bishop of Vienna (1523–30).
Cortés was the first conqueror since Julius Caesar to write a description of his conquests.
Cortés's second letter, dated 30 October 1520, provides a vivid account of the people he encountered and fought en route to Tenochtitlán, painting a picture of an impressive empire centered around a great city. He relates his scrape with rival Velázquez and gives a wonderful description of the buildings, institutions, and court at Tenochtitlán.
It is here that Cortés provides a definitive name for the country, calling it “New Spain of the Ocean Sea.” This letter is also important for making reference to Cortés's “lost” first letter, supposedly composed at Vera Cruz on 10 July 1520. Whether that letter was actually lost or was suppressed by the Council of the Indies is unknown, though there is little doubt it once existed.
It is the text of this “second” letter, THE FIRST SURVIVING ONE, that was the first major announcement to the world of the discovery of major civilizations in the New World — and, as such, is a work of surpassing importance.
This copy bears the full-page woodcut portrait of Pope Clement VII on the verso of the fourth preliminary leaf, which is not found with all copies. Additionally, the title-page bears an interesting 14-piece composite woodcut border and the verso of that page has a stunning full-page woodcut of the coat of arms of Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, to whom the letter is addressed. The coat of arms is surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The text is printed in roman with side- and shouldernotes; the lay-out is elegant and there is one large, handsome woodcut initial.
As usual, the letter is here bound with Peter Martyr's De Rebus, et insulis noviter repertis, which provides an account of the recently discovered islands of the West Indies and their inhabitants. It is often considered a substitute for the lost Cortés letter.
One of the most important early descriptions of Mexico and of the first encounter of the West with the Aztec civilization, this is a work of bedrock importance to the New World.
No complete copy has appeared for sale since 1985.
Alden & Landis, European Americana, 524/5; Sabin 16947; Harrisse, BAV, 125. Sanz 933–34; Medina, BHA, 70; Church 53; Burden 5; JCB, German Americana, 524/4; Streeter Sale 190. 18th-century half vellum and sprinkled paper over boards, gilt red leather label. Map supplied in expert facsimile; blank leaf H8 lacking. Bookplate of John Carter Brown (Library) on front pastedown, with deaccession stamp. Occasional very minor soiling in the text, else very good — a copy clean and even crisp. (26808)

Cortes's Stirring Letters
in French
Cortés, Hernán. Correspondance de Fernand Cortès avec l'empereur Charles Quint sur la conquête du Mexique. Francfort: J.J. Kesler, 1779. 8vo. xvi, 471 pp.
$400.00

French-language edition of the second, third, and fourth letters incorrectly numbered respectively as the first, second, and third. Translated by M. le vicomte de Flavigny.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Sabin 16953. Contemporary treed calf, front joint (outside) starting at top to open. A good+ copy — in fact, a rather nice one. (20510)
Coxe, William. Sketches of the natural, civil, and political state of Swisserland; in a series of letters to William Melmoth ... second edition. London: J. Dodsley, 1780. 8vo (23.5 cm, 9.25"). viii, 474, [2] pp.
$250.00

Second edition, following the first of the previous year: Swiss travelogue, incorporating contemporary political analysis and a bit of discussion of Protestant vs. Catholic religious observances alongside the descriptions of natural beauties. The author was a historian who served as tutor to the sons of the Duke of Marlborough and the Earl of Pembroke, as well as travelling companion to Lord Herbert, Lord Brome, and various other noblemen; he published several works recounting his tours through Poland, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland.
Click the images for enlargements.
ESTC T160087; Brunet, II, 399. On Coxe, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary half morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; leather a bit scuffed over corners and extremities. Front pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Light to moderate foxing throughout (nothing worse).
Crawfurd, John. Journal of an embassy from the governor-general of India to the courts of Siam and Cochin China; exhibiting a view of the actual state of those kingdoms ... second edition. London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1830. 8vo (23 cm, 9"). 2 vols. I: Fold. frontis., vii, [1], 475, [1] pp.; 3 fold. plts., 8 plts., illus. II: [2], v, [1], 459, [1] pp.; 4 fold. plts., 7 plts., 1 fold. chart.
$5000.00
Single-click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
Second edition, following the first of 1828: Description of a diplomatic voyage through Thailand, Vietnam, and the Malay Peninsula, undertaken by a Scottish surgeon who had worked for the East India Company before becoming an envoy and colonial administrator. Following his retirement from public service, Crawfurd dedicated himself to Oriental studies, and published such works as A Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language, A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent Countries, and A History of the Indian Archipelago.
The present account is one of the most important descriptions of the region in the early 19th century, incorporating cultural and religious assessments as well as economic and political. The two volumes are illustrated with 8 oversized, folding plates; 1 folding chart; 15 plates (many depicting variations in regional costume for both men and women), and a number of in-text engravings.
NSTC 2C42639; Goldsmiths’-Kress 26080; not in Maggs, Bibl.
Asiatica. On Crawfurd, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Publisher’s
dark green cloth, blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title; spines very
slightly sunned and showing faint traces of now-absent paper labels, cloth
lightly rubbed at corners and spine extremities. Hinges cracked (inside).
Front pastedowns rubber-stamped (no other institutional markings). Title-pages
with pencilled owner’s name in upper margins; contents pages with inked
owner’s name dated 1865. Frontispiece, plates, and a few pages in proximity
to plates lightly to moderately foxed; one plate in vol. II torn from inner
margin, tear not touching image.
Absorbing
reading, evocative images.

Proudly American Liberal Arts — The Port Folio's Debut
Dennie, Joseph, ed. The port folio. Philadelphia: Bradford & Inskeep, 1801. 4to (32.2 cm, 12.7"). [8], 416 pp. (lacking pp. 103/04, 11/12, 255–64, 271/72, 339/40).
$350.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: the first appearance of the Port Folio, an important early American literary and political periodical that ran from 1801 through 1827. In the premier, weekly issues gathered here, the journal featured John Quincy Adams's account of his tour through Silesia, Dennie's federalist thoughts, a translation of a canto from Voltaire's Henriade, a diatribe against the phrase “people of colour” (and in defense of slavery), original poetry, theatrical and musical reviews, a humorous brief on how most efficiently to inconvenience other people in the coffee-house, on the street, or at the play-house, and many other items. This collection, which contains 51 of the 52 issues of 1801, includes the
original prospectus (with a handful of names pencilled in the “names” column provided at the close).
This volume is in the large ambitious quarto format of the journal's first years, not the octavo format of the later, “New Series”
Provenance: Front free endpaper with early inked presentation inscription to New Salem Academy from the Honorable Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779–1856), the Massachusetts lawyer who established the New England Museum.
Sabin 64182. Contemporary quarter sheep and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped date; rubbed and stained overall, spine leather with cracks and chips, spine head with remnants of small paper label, refurbished: spine caps readhered, front cover reattached, edges reinforced, leather consolidated. Front free endpaper with inscription as above. A later hand has laid in a number of leaves of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein, along with some account of the lacking portions; occasional pencilled annotations in text as well. One leaf with inner margin neatly reinforced; some tears repaired and loose leaves secured. Pages occasionally creased; varying degrees of browning and foxing. Outer edges trimmed closely, occasionally with loss of final letters. Upper portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of weekly header and about three paragraphs of text; one leaf chipped along fold, with loss of several letters; lower outer portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of roughly two paragraphs. Nos. 13, 14, 32, and 34 each lacking final leaf; no. 33 lacking. Pp. 395/96 bound in out of order. Several pieces of dried plant matter laid in at various points.
This volume of the Port Folio is as meaty and full of just plain interesting stuff as they all were, despite its lacking bits; and, it represents the journal's beginnings. (29227)

Liberal Arts of All Stripes
Dennie, Joseph, ed. The port folio. Volumes V & VI. Philadelphia: Smith & Maxwell, 1808. 8vo (22 cm, 8.6"). [4], 416, 416 pp.
$225.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The Port Folio, an important early American literary and political periodical, ran from 1801 through 1827. This volume comprises Vols. V and VI of the “New Series,” collecting the weekly issues from 2 Jan. through 24 Dec. 1808, including a discussion of the merits of classical studies, a treatise on “Oriental poetry,” jokes, theatrical reviews and commentary, the latest (British) legal intelligences, original poems and translations of French and Italian poems, Francis Kinloch's “Letters from Geneva and France,” an account of the health benefits of manufactured mineral waters, etc.
Provenance & Evidence of Readership: Front pastedown with early inked and pencilled inscriptions of Simon Elliot, front free endpaper with early pencilled presentation inscription of Dr. Willard Putnam, first text page with inked inscription of Simon Elliot along upper inner margin. A later hand has laid in several sheets of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein; there are occasional pencilled marks of emphasis and a few annotations. Laid-in letter from a modern bookseller noting that he is sending the present volume and will look for another.
Sabin 64182. Contemporary quarter red sheep; marbled paper all but entirely worn away from sides, spine sunned and scuffed. Some early leaves with lower corners creased or stained along inner margins and starting to separate; scattered light to mild foxing. One leaf with one paragraph excised, affecting a few lines of the biography on the reverse; pp. 29/30 of vol. VI, no. 2 excised; upper portion of pp. 409/10 of vol. VI torn away with loss of a few lines. Some pages printed slightly askew, resulting in occasional shaving of letters or even (infrequently) lines. A slightly battered copy, but still — like all Port Folios, meaty and full of just plain INTERESTING stuff. (29347)
PLACE
AN ORDER | E-MAIL
US | PRB&M HOME