travelogues

Provenance:  Inscribed by the author: “To B.F. Pyle, Esq. [?] from his friend the author.”

•  Publisher's textured violet cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; faded, especially over spine, tear to cloth along front joint with corners and extremities a bit rubbed. Front fly-leaf with inked inscription as above. Endpapers, frontispiece (“The Rhine”), and title-page lightly foxed. In fact a clean, nice copy.  (23195)

Gerard's observations cover botany, linguistics, culture, and commerce, as well as geography. The area of his travels is depicted by an oversized, folding map of his own design.

•  NSTC 2G5453; Howgego, II, G7.   Contemporary brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; rebacked and 95% of original spine reapplied, with the publisher's name at the foot of the spine chipped. Front pastedown and back of map each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings), front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated [18]49. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Last preface page with small inked annotation. Pages slightly age-toned; map with light offsetting and one short tear starting along fold, not touching image.  (24291)

This is the first edition, the manuscript having remained in the family unpublished for 100 years. There are two issues of it: This the one without the printer's device on the title-page. It is written mostly in German and printed in “Fraktur,” but with some Latin in the preface.

All called-for plates are present, including the handsome frontispiece offering medallion portraits of eight prominent German and Ottoman figures — including Ungnad and Gerlach.

Very uncommon.  In the U.S. we locate only the copy at Dumbarton Oaks (the other “reported” copy having been deaccessioned); and VD17 locates only seven copies of this issue and one of the other issue, all in Germany.

•  VD17: 23:232887D.   Recent full rich, dark brown morocco by Grace Bindings (signed in the lower rear turn-in): Round spine with raised bands defined by gilt rules, gilt center device in compartments; covers tooled with concentric panels, the outermost with fleurons at the corners. Title-leaf and next leaf mounted; next three leaves with repairs to foremargins; no loss of any text.  (22460)

Hall's journal was first published in 1824; the present fifth edition was the second volume issued in the "Constable's miscellany of original and selected publications in the various departments of literature, science, & the arts" series. The text has been expanded from the second edition.

•  Sabin 29718; Palau 112072 (first ed.). Contemporary half calf over marbled paper sides, spine ruled in double gilt fillets with gilt-stamped devices in compartments; worn and abraded with leather cracking over spine, and joints cracked but holding, Lacking map. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription. First and last few pages lightly spotted.

The work is heavily illustrated with a total of 28 maps and plates (including heliotype reproductions of photographic portraits of Native Americans who aided the party), as well as numerous in-text engravings. Held in a special pocket at the back is the enormous, linen-backed, color-printed “Map of the North Polar Region.”

45th Cong., 3d sess. Senate. Ex. doc. 27.

Provenance: This copy has the original mailing label tipped in at the front, from the U.S. Senate to the Rev. E.A. Dalrymple of Baltimore, MD.

•  Pilling, Proof-sheets, 1640. Not in Sabin.   Publisher's red cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped pictorial vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title; covers with shadowy discolorations, spine darkened and with light area from now-absent label. Front hinge (inside) cracked from the weight of this substantial volume. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped. Title-page with minor offsetting from frontispiece; large map with one tear along fold. Complete, sound, clean.  (23785)

Illustrated with seven engraved plates and a folding engraved map by Edward Finden. The plates, probably taken from personal sketches of the author, render the landscape and people in fine detail. Four plates are of mountain passes and river crossings. The other three plates depict “cottages and natives at Hacienda of Mondomo,” a dramatic scene of mounted Indian lancers attacking Spanish troops, and another showing the lassoing of bulls. In the back of vol. II is a folding map of the Department of Cauca, “Dedicated to Sr. Dr. Marselino Perez Devalenca. By I. R. A.”

Provenance:  Formerly a copy belonging to Indiana University Library.

•  Palau 112117; Sabin 30023.   Bound as above. Flex marks on joints, a couple of shallow scratches on front and back covers. Fold-mark across corners of two leaves. Pages clean, map and plates in excellent condition. Lilly Library duplicate, with small paper label affixed to bottom edge of rear pastedowns; a few library pencillings, but no library stamps.  (24568)

Click the image for an enlargement.

The present item includes a colored frontispiece of the coat of arms of Balthasar Sprenger, “the real author of the alleged Vespuccian voyage from Lisbon to India 1505–6,” with the accompanying tissue guard — the account long having been misattributed by historians to Vespucci himself.

Handsomely printed at the Chiswick Press. Limited to 250 numbered copies (this is copy no. 236).

•  Quarter white vellum, lettered in gilt on the spine, single-rule gilt frame on front and back covers. Covers bumped at lower corners and darkened along edges; head of spine with scrape and ink blot. Dark offsetting on endpapers; otherwise, pages clean. Top edge gilt, others uncut. (21272)

Many of the 52 lithographed plates are in duotone; some were done by Ackerman Lithography and some by P.S. Duval & Co., after views of scenery, buildings, and natives drawn by Lieut. Gibbon.

Two volumes of maps, not present here, were issued separately.

•  Sabin 31524; Palau 113897. Publisher’s textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; vol. I with spine sunned and cloth chipped at spine extremities; vol. II with corners bumped, cloth peeling away from spine and chipped at spine extremities, spine with gilt dimmed and small area of unobtrusive discoloration from now-absent label. Front pastedowns each with pencilled owner’s name and institutional rubber stamp (no other markings); front free endpaper of vol. II starting to tear along inner margin. Mild to moderate foxing and spotting; a few text gatherings unopened. One plate in vol. I with short tear from outer margin, turning into a narrow scrape extending about halfway into the upper portion of the image; one leaf in vol. II with tiny portion (less than one word) affixed to opposing plate. Not a perfect set, but a perfectly fascinating one.