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ItemID: #88867
Cost: $17,500.00

Navigantium atque itinerantium bibliotheca

John Harris

“A GREAT COLLECTION”: 1764 EDITION OF HARRIS’ COMPLEAT COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, INCLUDING CORTES, DRAKE, MAGELLAN, AND OTHERS, BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH 61 MAPS AND PLATES, MANY FOLDING

HARRIS, John. Navigantium atque Itinerantum Bibliotheca; Or, a Compleat Collection of Voyages and Travels. London: Printed for T. Osborne, et al., 1764. Two volumes. Folio (11 by 16-1/2 inches), period-style full sprinkled calf gilt, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, red and black morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers. Housed in matching custom clamshell boxes. $17,500.

Desirable 1764 (third) edition, revised and considerably enlarged, with 39 engraved plates and 22 magnificent engraved maps, many of which are folding. Includes descriptions of America, the South Seas, the West Indies, the North Pole, Russia, China, Africa and India.

"A great collection" (Cox I, 10). Scholar, scientific writer and topographer John Harris, a distinguished member of the Royal Society, first published this work in 1705 to compete with Churchill's 1704 collection of voyages. Harris' work differed from his rival in aiming to provide a comprehensive history rather than simply a collection of previously published narratives. "Harris 'edits' these voyages by pruning, rearranging, 'digesting' in his own words with quotations interspersed taken from the originals. He adds some valuable and useful historical accounts of the growth of trade, habits of commerce, growth of Companies with exclusive rights, etc." (Cox). Among the voyages included are those of Magellan, Drake, Cavendish, Cortes, Schouten, Hawkins, Narbrough and Dampier, as well as many others. "To the original extensive collection are added accounts of voyages complete since the first publication: Christopher Middleton to Hudson's Bay, 1741-42; Bering to the Northeast, 1725-26; Woodes Roger's circumnavigation, 1708-11; Clipperton and Shevlocke's circumnavigation, 1719-22; Roggeveen to the Pacific, 1721-33; and the various travels of Lord Anson, 1740-44 (Hill 774, 775). Titles printed in red and black. Alden & Landis, 705/90. Sabin 30483. see Tooley 247.

Maps and plates beautiful and fine, text with just a bit of scattered faint marginal dampstaining in Volume I. Beautifully bound.

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