“ONE OF THE MOST SPLENDID NARRATIVES IN THE LITERATURE OF AFRICAN TRAVEL”: 1790 “BEST” EDITION OF BRUCE’S TRAVELS TO DISCOVER THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, ILLUSTRATED WITH 58 FULL-PAGE ENGRAVED PLATES

(AFRICA) BRUCE, James. Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile. Edinburgh: Printed by J. Ruthven for C.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1790. Five volumes. Quarto, contemporary three-quarter speckled calf gilt (four of five volumes) rebacked in period style, red and black morocco spine labels, marbled boards. $15,000.

Best edition of this illustrated classic of African exploration, published the same year as the first, magnificently embellished with engraved vignette title pages, three large engraved folding maps, and 58 engraved plates of scenery, antiquities, battle plans and natural history by James Heath.

“The last of the great 18th-century travelers in Egypt” (Clayton, 13), James Bruce arrived in Alexandria in June 1768 committed to discovering the source of the Nile, which he thought began somewhere in Abyssinia. He traveled across the northern deserts in the guise of a Turkish sailor and finally reached Abyssinia in early 1770. In November of that year he found the previously unknown source of the Blue Nile, which he claimed, mistakenly, to be the Nile of the ancients and therefore more important than the larger White Nile. Bruce’s difficult return in 1771 marked another first: he became the first person to trace the Blue Nile to its confluence with the White. Although some contemporaries criticized his Travels, “the substantial accuracy of every statement concerning his Abyssinian travels has since been amply demonstrated” (Britannica). Bruce’s account also remains notable for its famous plate of the figure of a harpist in the tomb of Ramses III, “the first picture of a scene in the royal tombs to be published… it caught the imagination of many” (Romer, 36). “One of the most splendid narratives in the literature of African travel” (Hallet, Africa to 1875). First published in London the same year. With half title in Volume III. Cox I:388-89. Howgego B171. Armorial bookplates.

Light foxing, mostly marginal, to text and a handful of plates only, occasional marginal closed tears. An about-fine copy, handsomely bound.