[Rarebooks] fa: [CAPTAIN COOK] SPARRMAN - VOYAGE AU CAP DE BONNE-ESPERANCE 1787

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, February 7. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/hakjrxo

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain

Anders Sparrman: Voyage au Cap de Bonne-Esperance, et Autour du Monde avec le Capitaine Cook, et principalement dans le Pays des Hottentots. Par Andre Sparrman… Avec Cartes, Figures et Planches en taille-deuce. Traduit par M. le Tourneur. Paris: chez Buisson, 1787. First edition thus. Three volumes, 8vo (20 cm), in later quarter cloth and marbled boards with gilt-lettered leather spine pieces; [iii]-xxii, 388 pp,; [4], 366 pp.; [4], 363, [1] pp.; half-titles in vols. II and III; with the folding map and 16 engraved plates, seven of which are folding (complete).

First French edition, and the best-illustrated edition, of Sparrman's narrative. Rubbing and edge-wear to the boards; intermittent toning to the contents with occasional light spotting (most noticeable on the preliminary and terminal leaves), last leaf of vol. I with three ink spots and small loss to one corner not affecting any text; short tear to left margin of the folding map; otherwise quite clean and sound, firmly bound, with a complete complement of the plates. The half-titles bear the contemporary printed labels of G. Henry, Marchand-Libraire (bookseller) of Nancy.

Sparrman was a Swedish naturalist, disciple of Linnaeus, and professor of zoology who joined Cook's second expedition in South Africa and traveled with it from 1772-75 as chief assistant to Georg Forster. Most of the narrative deals with explorations in Africa, with an emphasis on its flora and fauna, but vol. I contains a vivd account of the circumnavigation: "Hairbreadth escape from collision of the two ships, not mentioned elsewhere. Shocking details as to the food on board. Described the plants which George Forster drew. Resumed his work at the Cape on return of the expedition. Book interesting and amusing, and descriptive of social life at the Cape" (Hocken: Bibliography of the Literature Relating to New Zealand). Forster dedicated his Florulae insularum Australium (1786) to Sparrman. This 8vo version was issued simultaneously with a two-volume 4to version of the same translation.