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Catalogue
78
Voyages
& Travels
History
& Natural History
Science & Technology
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96.
STRABO. Strabonis Geographikon bibloi 17. Strabonis Rervm
Geographicarvm Libri XVII. Isaacvs Casavbonvs recensuit, summoque
studio & diligentia, ope etiam veterum codicum, emendauit, ac
Commentariis illustrauit. Accessit & Tabula Orbis totius descriptionem
complectens. Adiecta est etiam Guilielmi Xylandri Augustani Latina
versio, cum necessariis Indicibus. Ginevra [Geneva], Excvdebat Evstathivs
Vignon Atrebat, M.D.LXXXVII (1587). $4,500
Folio; pp. [8], 602; pp. [8], 223, [1]. Signatures: *4, a-2B6, 2C4,
2D2; a4, A-S6, T4. Full calf, rebacked; gilt embossed over-all design
of fleur-de-lis within a tooled, gilt frame on front and back, with
gilt ecclesiastical supra libros; spine gilt in compartments, with
gilt fleur-de-lis tooling; a.e.g.; corners slightly bumped, edges,
lower compartment and part of upper cover rubbed; both titles within
a decorated border; elaborate head- and tail-pieces; historiated
and foliated initials; printed in two columns in Greek and Latin;
printed and manuscript marginalia; some contemporary underlining;
two signatures in upper margin of title; first title stained at
lower edge and repaired; little staining in margins of some leaves,
affecting few letters; small hole in one leaf, affecting few letters;
small tear in margin of one leaf, no loss of text; some mispagination;
wanting map.
Adams S1908; BM STC (French) 69; Brunet V, 554; Graesse VI, 505:
"Excellente édition faite sur 4 mss..."; Born c.63
B.C.E., Strabo was a Greek geographer and historian. He "chiefly
employed Greek authorities (the Alexandrian geographers Polybius,
Posidonius and Theophanes of Mytilene, the companion of Pompey)
and made comparatively little use of Roman authorities. ...Moreover
Strabo probably amassed his material in the library of Alexandria,
so that Greek authorities would naturally furnish the great bulk
of his collections. ... The work consists of seventeen books, all
of which have been preserved, except for parts of Book VII. The
first two are introductory, the next eight deal with Europe (two
being devoted to Spain and Gaul, two to Italy and Sicily, one to
the north and east of Europe, and three to Greek lands). The eleventh
book treats of the main divisions of Asia and the more easterly
districts, the next three of Asia Minor. Book XV deals with India
and Persia, Book XVI with Assyria, Babylonia, Syria and Arabia,
and the closing book with Egypt and Africa." Guilielmus Xylander
(Wilhelm Holtzman) (1532-1576), author and editor of several important
works, was the able translator of this edition, and Isaac Casaubon
(1559-1614), one of the most learned classical scholars of his day,
revised the text and wrote a lengthy commentary and criticism of
the work. "The Aldine (Venice, 1516, first edition) was unfortunately
based on a very corrupt MS. The first substantial improvements in
the text were due to Casaubon, whose text remained the basis of
subsequent editions..." -(Encycl. Brit. 1911). The printer,
Eustache Vignon, was active in Geneva from 1573 to 1589.
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97.
TAIT, JOHN. John Tait's Directory, for the City of Glasgow,
Villages of Anderston, Calton, and Gorbals; also for the Towns of
Paisley, Greenock, Port-Glasgow, and Kilmarnock, from The 15th May
1783, to the 15th May 1784. ... Glasgow, Robert Forrester, 1871.
$125
8vo; pp. 103, [1]. Original paper over boards; rebacked; corners
bumped; signature on front fly-leaf; p. 8 misnumbered 5; with an
initial Advertisement Leaf. Note tipped in on front fly-leaf: "This
is a Reprint of the First Glasgow Directory (1783). Only one copy
of the Original is known to exist." In fact, several copies
are known to exist.
Several copies located in COPAC. A reprint of the first Glasgow
Directory. " ... a Complete Guide for the easy finding out
every inhabitant of the least note, in this City and the other towns
and suburbs."
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Presentation Binding, and Lengthy Note
to the Countess of Aberdeen
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98. TAYLOR, CONYNGHAM CRAWFORD. Toronto "Called Back"
and Emigration with reminiscences of a recent trip to Great Britain
and Ireland ... Toronto, William Briggs, 1890. First edition. $425
8vo; pp. xiii, 149; 3 portraits within the text; full tan calf presentation
binding, stamped and lettered in gilt, blind and black on both covers
and on spine; inner dentelles gilt; a.e.g.; light rubbing to corners
of binding; a very good, clean copy. With a full-page hand-written
presentation from the author to the Countess of Aberdeen, dated
October, 1890.
Morley, p. 237 (137 pp. only, lacking the Appendix); 2 copies located
at LAC; 1 copy at U. of T. (Pratt Library, Victoria University);
other Canadian holdings, most of which appear to have the same collation
as Morley (i.e., lacking Appendix). One of several titles published
by Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s, relating to the commercial growth
of the city of Toronto. The lengthy presentation by the author to
the Countess of Aberdeen begins "As a souvenir of your Ladyship's
visit to the Queen City of the West and the appreciative interest
your Ladyship has taken in all our public and private enterprises
not only in Toronto but throughout the Dominion".
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One of the Earliest Accounts of Canada
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99. THEVET, ANDRÉ. Historia dell'India America detta
altramente Francia Antartica ... Vinegia, Gabriel Giolito de'Ferrari,
1561. First edition in Italian. $7,500
Small 8vo; 16 ff, pp. 363, (1) (Colophon), f (printer's device).
Full blue crushed morocco; covers triple-ruled in gilt with doubled-ruled
panel; spine ornately-gilt in compartments; inner dentelles gilt;
marbled endpapers; a.e.g.; armorial bookplate (John Nicholas Brown-John
Carter Brown, with small neat deaccession stamp); faint contemporary
name on title-page; little restoration at heel of title-page, barely
touching imprint date; a very fine copy of this scarce translation
of Thévet's Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique, autrement
Nommée Amérique, first published in Paris in 1557.
Signed binding by Niedrée (of Paris; d. 1864) - cf British
Library Database of Bookbindings.
Sabin 95336; Str. I: 21 (1st ed.); vide Cox, p. 251 (earlier Fr.
and later Eng. editions); Brunet V: 814: "Cette traduction
ne se trouve pas facilement" ; Church 112; Field 1547; Borba
de Moraes II, p. 858; 4 locations in Canada :UofT (Fisher), UAlb,
LAC, Memorial. Thévet was a Franciscan friar who spent some
months with Villegagnon trying to establish a French colony on the
coast of Brazil, and who writes here of that attempt, and of the
manners and customs of the natives whom they met. It seems probable,
however, that his accounts of North America, which form a large
portion of this book, and which he claims are based on first- hand
knowledge are, in fact, derived from the contemporary French navigators
whom he knew personally. He gives one of the earliest descriptions
of Canada, one of the earliest accounts of Newfoundland and Labrador,
and one of the earliest discussions of the customs and ceremonies
of the Indians, including a marvelous description of tobacco-smoking
(p. 333).
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100.
THOMSON, JOSEPH. Mungo Park and the Niger. London, George
Philip & Son, 1890. $250
Small 8vo; pp. vi, [2], 338; frontispiece portrait and 19 plates
and coloured maps (two maps folding); contemporary prize binding
of full green gilt-panelled calf, ornately-gilt spine, inner dentelles
gilt, and gilt supra-libros (St. Paul's Preparatory School-Colet
Court); marbled endpapers and fore-edges; prize bookplate on front
paste-down; a fine copy, from the series The World's Great Explorers
and Explorations.
Hess & Coger 7183. Mungo Park, the renowned Scottish explorer,
undertook his first expedition to Africa in the late eighteenth
century, under the auspices of the African Association. Travelling
northeast from the Gambia River to explore the source of the Niger,
he reached the latter at Segu and proceeded about three hundred
miles upstream to Bamako. It was a substantial achievement and one
of the earliest of the explorations to take place in Africa.
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