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Thevenot / 1696 / (Abel Tasman) Relations de divers Voyages curieux, qui n'ont point est publi es, Et qu'on a traduit ou tir des Originaux des Voyageurs Fran ois, Espagnols, Allemands, Portugais, Anglois, Hollandois, Persans, Arabes autres Orientaux . . . (Safe 1, 81400) Folio. Five parts (though fifth only fragmentary, as always) in two volumes. Full contemporary calf, front with gilt arms of the Biblioteca Lindesenia. Expertly rebacked to style. Spines in six parts, separated by raised bands, compartments with floral gilt toolings, each volume lettered in the second compartment "VOYAGE DE THEVENOT" and "TOME I" / "TOME II" in the third. Minor foxing spots and toning to leaves with occasional soiling but maps in excellent condition with minor occasional tears. (See Description for detailed collation.) The Definitive Travel Collection of the Seventeenth Century--Includes the Early Appearance of the Abel Tasman Diary A handsome example of the 1696 final edition of Thevenot's Relation de Divers Voyages--the only edition to include extremely rare fragments of the never-completed fifth volume. A remarkable book, it represents the culmination of the great travel collections of De Bry, Purchas, and Hakluyt. It also has an incredible selection of maps, including the first map of Australia and New Zealand. This book is extraordinary for its inclusion of the immensely important four-page diary of the voyage of Abel Tasman, which the definitive bibliography of the book notes is "missing in totality in many examples." It is no exaggeration to state that Thevenot's work is one of the most complete and lavishly produced travel collections, with its scope extending to Africa, the Far East, the East Indies, the Middle East, Oceania, and North and South America. The sheer collation of sources is impressive, with Thevenot using not only the Jesuit Relations, which were a popular and important source for relaying discoveries to Spain and France in the seventeeth century, but he also published the accounts of English, Spanish, Italian, and German seamen employed in trade and the service of their states. A number of the sources that appear in this text had never before been published, allowing this book to be the sole repository for some of the most detailed accounts of seventeenth-century travels. The book's publication history (discussed further below) means that few examples are alike. This example includes an unusually extensive collation, including a number of fragments in its fifth part that are seldom found. Among these are the accounts of the winds between the Low Countries and the East Indies, and the extremely rare Spanish account of the Solomon Islands. Melchisedech Thevenot was one of the most important seventeenth-century French men of letters, remarkable for the breadth of his work. Not only was he noteworthy for his travel writings and theses in medicine, astronomy, physics, and other sciences, but he is also known as the inventor of the spirit level and the author of The Art of Swimming, one of the first works on the subject. For this, he has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. The Tasman Diary One of the rarities contained in this book is the extract from a suppressed diary of the voyage, which is the fourth appearance of a log of the journey in print and the second translation of the journal. Over four pages, the highlights of the diary are described, with the discovery of Van Diemen's Land, Tasman's descriptions of Aboriginal peoples, and the famous first European voyage to New Zealand all detailed. While the cartographic dissemination of Tasman's discoveries is to some extent better understood, the lineage of the diary is less well understood. The first printed description of the voyage appears in Montanus's 1671 De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld,. Seller Inventory # 81400
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