[Rarebooks] fa: FREZIER (& EDMUND HALLEY) - VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH-SEA (Chile, Peru, Falklands, &c.) 1717

[ArCh]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, September 30. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/yatkca8z

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Amedee François Frezier [and Edmund Halley]: A Voyage to the South-Sea, and along the Coasts of Chili and Peru, in the Years 1712, 1713, and 1714. Particularly describing The Genius and Constitution of the Inhabitants, as well Indians as Spaniards: Their Customs and Manners; their Natural History, Mines, Commodities, Traffick with Europe, &c. By Monsieur Frezier, Engineer in Ordinary to the French King. Illustrated with 37 Copper-Cutts of the Coasts, Harbours, Cities, Plants, and other Curiosities: Printed from the Author's Original Plates inserted in the Paris Edition. With a Postscript by Dr. Edmund Halley, Savilian Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford. And an Account of the Settlement, Commerce, and Riches of the Jesuites in Paraguay. London: Printed for Jonah Bowyer, at the Rose in Ludgate-Street, MDCCXVII [1717]. First edition; 4to (24.5 x 19 cm) in early/period Cambridge-style paneled calf; [12], 335, [9] pp. + 36 (of 37) engraved maps and plates, some folding and colored. ESTC T145981; Goldsmiths' 5338; Hill 654; Sabin 25926.

With 36 copper-engraved maps, charts and plates, 19 of which are folding, 21 with hand-coloring. Complete as to the maps and charts (two of the maps are numbered 36), but lacking one of the plates (XXXI). Bound without the leaf of directions to the binder. Unobtrusively ex-library, with a bookplate on the front paste-down and a small, faint inked number on the verso of the title-page; no other marks or inscriptions. Binding with wear to the extremities, rubbing to the spine with loss to the spine label, shadows of old tape repairs; front and rear joints/hinges repaired but a bit tender. Contents mildly toned, occasional small spots and offsetting, but generally quite clean and crisp.

First edition in English, with "the same engravings as the French original, but preferred to the latter because it contains a postscript [and prefatory note] by Edmund Halley, of comet fame, which corrects certain geographical errors made by Frezier" (Hill). It also contains a frontispiece "Chart for the better understanding of the Voyage" not found in the French edition. At the behest of Louis XIV, Frezier (1682-773) sailed into the South Pacific to explore and survey the coasts of Chile and Peru, study their flora, fauna and inhabitants, both Spanish and indigenous, and — most important of all — spy on and map the colonies' military fortifications and anchorages. Elsewhere on his voyage, he surveyed the Le Maire Strait and the coast of Tierra del Fuego (Terre de feu). "His map of southern Tierra del Fuego and the Falklands [Iles nouvelles] was the best of the area so far made" (Tatham, Dictionary of Falklands Biography). "One of the most valuable of our early records of the Falkland Islands, and to Frezier we are indebted for the clearest contemporary account of the navigation of the French seamen there" (Hill). On the way home, he visited, and drew detailed plans of, Sao Salvador (Cidade de Bahia), on the coast of Brazil, and Angra (Azores). Frezier also has the distinction of having discovered the beach strawberry and a Chilean game called La sueca which looks very much like golf (see photo above for what is generally regarded as the earliest depiction of the sport.)