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Catalogue
74
America
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136.
VAN HISE, CHARLES RICHARD & WILLIAM SHIRLEY BAYLEY. Department
of the Interior. U.S. Geological Survey. Atlas to accompany Monograph
XXVIII on the Marquette Iron-Bearing District of Michigan. With
a Chapter on the Republic Trough by Henry Lloyd Smyth. Washington,
1896. $300
Folio; lithographed title; leaf of contents; legend; 1 large, folding,
coloured lithographed geological map; 35 coloured lithographed sectional
plans; original cloth; spine worn; front endpapers soiled; neat
institutional bookplate.
One of the many excellent geological atlases produced by the U.S.
Geological Survey at the turn of the last century.
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137.
VERGENNES, CHARLES GRAVIER, comte de. Mémoire Historique
et Politique sur la Louisiane, par M. de Vergennes, ministre de
Louis XVI, ... Paris, Chez Lepetit jeune, An X - 1802. First edition.
$900
8vo; pp. xxiv, [25]-315; engraved frontispiece portrait; contemporary
full tree calf, vellum corners and spine gilt in compartments; binding
little rubbed at edges; some light age-browning of text; last part
of the text relates to the author's "Mémoires sur l'Indostan,
Saint-Domingue, la Corse et la Guyane"; complete with half-title;
with the small bookplate of Olin Lane Merriam, and a small seminary
hand-stamp on half-title. A very good copy.
Howes V74; Streeter Sale III: 1573; Sabin 98971; Raines, p. 208.
Vergennes was a French diplomat and statesman who, in 1774, was
named foreign minister by Louis XVI. In 1778 he helped fashion,
together with Benjamin Franklin, the alliance with the American
colonies, at the same time establishing, with some success, a stable
balance of power among the European states. He was also the chief
French representative at the peace negotiations hammered out by
the Treaty of Paris of 1783 at the close of the American Revolution.
This memoir on the history and political situation of Louisiana
was prepared for the king by Vergennes at some point during his
term as foreign minister; it was published in 1802 when Spain had
ceded Louisiana to France and shortly before the "Purchase"
by the United States. A very important work.
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An Homage to Amerigo Vespucci
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138. [VESPUCCI, AMERIGO]. Elogio d'Amerigo Vespucci che ha
Riportato il Premio Dalla Nobile Accademia Etrusca di Cortona nel
di 15 d'Ottobre del'Anno 1788 con una dissertazione giustificativo
di questo celebre navigatore del P. Stanislao Canovai. Florence,
Pietro Allegrini, 1788. First edition. $1,250
Small 4to; pp. viii, 80; original paper over cardboard; paper spine
perished; excellent typography on very nice, heavy paper. A scarce
work.
Not in Howes; not in TPL; Sabin 10704; vide Leclerc 263 (later ed.).
Canovai devoted his life to proving that Vespucci discovered America.
In relation to a later edition of this work, Sabin says that "It
is hardly possible to understand how the calumnies against Amerigo,
which have so long been taught in every school, could have, for
many years, survived this excellent refutation."
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139. [VIMONT, BARTHELEMY]. Relation de ce qui s'est passé
en la Nouvelle France en l'Année 1642 et 1643 ... Paris,
Sebastien Cramoisy et Gabriel Cramoisy, 1644. First edition. $14,500
12mo; 4 ff, pp. 309, [3]. Contemporary vellum with manuscript title
on spine; Jesuitical ownership inscription at head of title; bookplate
on front pastedown; front hinge started; minimal worming in upper
gutter; faint dampstaining to text; minor repair to margin of one
leaf; overall a very good copy of this scarce twelfth Relation.
McCoy 51, var. 3; Sabin 99751; Church 464; TPL 6320; Harrisse NNF
81; Pilling Algonquian, p. 512; Paltsits JR 23:321; Bell 23 (another
issue). There are variations in the headings of pp. 232 and 282
which do not appear to be recorded by McCoy or Bell. Father Barthelemy
Vimont arrived at Quebec in August 1639 to succeed Father Paul LeJeune
as superior of the mission in Canada; he remained in Canada, with
the exception of a three-year period, until 1659. He lived mainly
in Sillery, and in 1642 went up river to witness the founding of
Montreal by Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, and his band
of settlers. Vimont describes the new settlement in Chap. XI and
speaks warmly of de Maisonneuve; he also mentions Nicollet's westward
explorations towards the Mississippi, and describes the condition
of the Christian Indians at Sillery, the mission at Tadoussac, and
the wars between the Hurons and the Iroquois. This work is of unusual
interest in that it includes a letter in Algonquin, with interlinear
French translation, dictated by a native convert. Unusual for a
Relation, this one contains one part only; this phenomenon is explained
by Vimont as resulting from Father Isaac Jogues' capture by the
Iroquois while he was carrying the Huron Relation. In fact, a great
deal of the interest of the work lies also with the inclusion of
five letters from Jogues detailing his captivity, his escape with
the help of the Dutch, and his later arrival in France. The work
concludes with a statement by Vimont that the Jesuit Fathers were
in New France purely for religious purposes and had no association
with the Company of New France; this referred to the allegations
that the priests were trafficking in furs, and this is firmly denied
in Vimont's statement.
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140.
[WASHINGTON, GEORGE]. Correspondence of General Washington and
Comte de Grasse 1781. August 17 - November 4. With supplementary
documents from the Washington Papers in the Manuscripts Division
of the Library of Congress. Washington, U.S. Printing Office, 1931.
Edited by The Institut Français de Washington. $175
4to; pp. xviii, 167, (1), f; original quarter-cloth and printed
paper over boards; original wrappers bound in. A very good copy.
Printed in honour of the sesquicentennial "of a victory which,
through the aid of France, rendered effective the Declaration of
Independence of the thirteen United States and secured their independence
as a Nation." - (Preface).
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141.
WEISE, ARTHUR JAMES. The Discoveries of America to the Year
1525. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1884. $100
8vo; pp. xii, 380; 15 plates of illus.(some being maps), 3 fldg
maps in rear pocket; publisher's full green cloth minimally rubbed
at edges; vignette stamped in gilt on front board, lettered in gilt
on spine, decorated endpapers; mostly unopened; a very good, bright
and clean copy.
A complete description of the celebrated voyages of Christopher
Columbus to the New World, the expedition of the Cabots and Amerigo
Vespucci's voyage to the south of the continent. Journal accounts
made by the explorers, where they exist, are integrated into this
volume, along with copious footnotes, including vivid descriptions
of the native peoples living on the continent during the time of
these discoveries. The author also discusses the voyage of Alvarez
de Pineda, the project of Francisco de Garay, the French expeditions
to the St. Lawrence, Verrazzano's exploration of the bays of New
York, and others. A New York edition by G.P. Putnam was available
in the same year. A very interesting work.
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