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Catalogue
73
Voyages
& Travels
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101.
PERONDINUS, PETRUS. Magni Tamerlanis Scytharum Imperatoris
Vita a Petro Perondino Pratense conscripta. Florence, [Lorenzo Torrentino],
1553. First edition. $2,150
Small, slim 8vo; pp. 54; recent full calf; few small brown stains
and little age-browning; overall a fine copy of a very scarce work.
Vide Adams I: 715 (later Amberg ed. of 1600); BL (It.), p. 499;
we have located copies at Harvard (Houghton) and a few Italian libraries
only; not in Atabey nor Blackmer. Tamerlane (Timor, Timur Leng)
(c.1336-1405) was a Mongol conqueror born near Samarkand. With an
army composed of Turks and Turkic-speaking mongols Tamerlane spent
his early military career in subduing his rivals in what is now
Russian Turkistan; by 1369 he firmly controlled the entire area
from his capital at Samarkand. In 1392 he advanced across the Euphrates,
conquered the territories between the Caspian and Black Seas and
invaded several of the Russian states, clearing the way for the
conquests of the grand duchy of Moscow. He returned to Samarkand
and, in 1398, he invaded India along the route of the Indus River,
taking Delhi and bringing to an end the Delhi Sultanate. He then
ravaged Georgia and worked his way to the Levant, where he took
Aleppo and Baghdad in 1400. In 1402 he fought the Ottoman Turks
in Asia Minor and at Angora captured their sultan, Beyazid I. He
died while planning an invasion of China, and was buried at Samarkand.
His exploits and conquests were luridly recounted in Christopher
Marlowe's "Tamburlaine" (1587-1590).
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102.
RAMEL, [JEAN-PIERRE], General. Narrative of the Deportation
to Cayenne, of Barthélemy, Pichgru, Willot, Marbois, La Rue,
Ramel, &c. &c. in consequence of The Revolution of the 18th
Fructidor, (September 4, 1797) containing a variety of important
facts relative to that revolution, and to the voyage, residence,
and escape of Barthélemy, Pichegru, &c. &c. From
the French of General Ramel, Commandant of the Legislative Body
Guard. London, Printed for J. Wright, 1799. First edition in English.
$575
8vo; pp. [4], 215; recent half-calf and marbled paper over boards;
complete with half-title; generally age-toned throughout, with some
sporadic light soiling; contemporary signature of "John Jardine"
on half-title and notation on first blank.
Cundall, West Indies, 1758; Sabin 67630. An account of a group of
Royalists exiled after the Revolution to Cayenne in French Guiana.
The work is a description of their travails, and of their escape
to Paramaribo, Berbice and Demerary, where they found passage on
a ship that took them to England.
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103.
RAYNAL, Abbé [GUILLAUME-THOMAS-FRANÇOIS]. Histoire
Philosophique et Politique des Etablissemens et du Commerce des
Européens dans les deux Indes. Geneva, Jean-Leonard Pellet,
1780. Five volumes, including Atlas. $9,000
Quarto; pp. xvi, engraved frontispiece portrait, 1 engraved plate,
pp. 741, [1] (Errata); 2 ff, engraved frontispiece, pp. viii, 485,
[1] (Errata); engraved frontispiece, pp. xv, [1] (blank), 629, [1]
(Errata); 2 ff, engraved frontispiece, pp. viii, 770, [1] (Errata);
Atlas: 2 ff, pp. 28. 50 engraved double-page maps (1-17, 17 bis,
18-49], all by Rigobert Bonne, and 23 tables (12 folding); old neat
repair to verso of one map (no loss); contemporary quarter-calf
over marbled boards; spines ornately gilt in compartments; original
gilt-stamped morocco labels; little wear to spine extremities in
some volumes; few corners lightly bumped; minimal light foxing and/or
browning; an extremely good, complete set. The frontispiece portrait
in volume I is by Cochin, and the four engraved plates are after
Moreau.
Not in Howes nor in TPL, both of which cite English translations
only; Sabin 68081: "A large part of the work is said to have
been written by Diderot, and others. The sentiments and criticisms
contained in it prevented its publication in France..." Surveying
the state of the colonies of Africa, Asia and the two Americas,
the author writes in true Voltairean tradition, and severely criticizes
the incursion of European political manoeuverings. Because of its
anti-slavery, anti-colonialist and anti-clerical sentiments, this
work was, in 1781, condemned to be burned "comme impie, blasphématoire,
séditieux, tendant à soulever les peuples contre l'autorité
souveraine et à renverser les principes fondamentaux de l'ordre
civil." - (Peignot II: 71) The work continued to be printed
outside of Paris, despite the watchful eye of spies and agents.
and went through many editions in several languages; it was revised
and augmented from time to time by Raynal, and appeared in various
abridgments. This was the first edition to bear his name on the
title-page.
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104.
[RHODES, JOHN]. The Surprising Adventures and Sufferings of
John Rhodes, a Seaman of Workington. Containing An Account of his
Captivity and cruel Treatment during eight Years with the Indians,
and five Years in different Prisons amongst the Spaniards in South-America.
By a Gentleman perfectly acquainted with the unfortunate Sufferer.
Newark: Printed by Pennington and Dodge, For R. Cotton, New-York,
1799. $675
Small 8vo; pp. viii, (9)-268. Recent cloth; foxed, as usual, throughout;
edge of a few leaves frayed (no affect to text).
Sabin 70764; Evans 36228; Field 1299: "It contains some curious
details of the customs of the Indians of Central America.";
not in Huntress. This work, while exciting to read, is questionable
as to its authenticity, even though it is written in the first person
and a statement on p. 10 attests to its being from Rhodes' own manuscript
journal.
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Rare Work on New France & the Great Lakes
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105. SAGARD-THEODAT, GABRIEL. Le Grand Voyage du Pays des
Hurons, situe en l'Amerique vers la mer douce, es derniers confins
de la Nouvelle France, dite Canada....
[bound with]:
Dictionaire de la Langue Huronne... Paris, 1632. First edition.
$35,000
12mo; pp. [20], 380, [14]; 12, [146]; wanting the extra engraved
title to the first part. Handsome eighteenth-century-style mottled
calf; red leather label; spine ornately gilt; some minor edge repair;
light brown stain throughout most of text (heavier on title and
prelims) ; some light marginal worming, neatly repaired long ago
and touching a few letters. Overall a very good copy of this exceedingly
scarce work.
European-Americana 632/86; Arents 181; Bell S33, Church 421; Field
1341 and 1342; Harrisse, NNF: 52 and 53; JCB II:243-44; Lande S2012;
Pilling Iroquoian, p. 147; Sabin 74881 and 74883; Streeter Sale
I:93; Vlach 661; TPL 6305. Sagard was a Recollet missionary who
spent the years 1623-1624 in Huronia as a missionary to the Huron
nation. His work, based largely on his own experiences and those
of his colleagues, as well as on contemporary letters and documents,
is considered to be the main authority for the history of the first
Recollet mission in Canada in the years 1615-1629, and the main
source for Indian life and relations with the French which does
not come from the Jesuits. He and Champlain were the first to comment
on the Huron Indians and the country in which they lived and, in
their respective accounts, shared what they had learnd from the
natives about the Great Lakes area. The Huron dictionary is the
first printed Huron vocabulary, a collection of French idioms and
expressions translated into Huron, to be used as a manual by traders
and missionaries. A major and important rarity of Canada, New France
and the Great Lakes area.
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