Histoire Naturelle de l'Islande du Groenland

ANDERSON J. (1750.)

£1500.00 

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An Arctic gem from the Harmsworth Library

du Detroit de Davis, et d'autres Pays situés sous le Nord..

First French edition. 2 vols. Engraved frontispiece, folding map, 7 folding engraved plates. 12mo. in 8s. c.19thC quarter red morocco over marbled boards, gilt titles and monogram to spine in raised compartments. A little dusty, occasional spotting in vol. 2, otherwise very good. xl, 314; iv, 391pp. Paris, Sebastien Jorry,

First published in Hamburg in 1746 under the name Nachrichten von Island, Grönland und der Strasse Davis, this edition was translated from the German by Gottfried Sellius. With much zoological content, particularly focussing on whaling, and with a dictionary of Greenlandic language. In his book The First Crossing of Greenland, Fridjof Nansen cites this book as containing the first mention of 'ski' on the 'Inland Ice'. A popular and influential work, a Danish edition was published in 1748 and a Dutch in 1750. There appears not, however, to have been an English edition. 

This copy from the library of Sir. R. Leicester Harmsworth, sold at Sotheby's in 1948.

Sabin, 1408a; Pilling, 113

Stock Code: 227198

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