Voyages And More From The Antiquariaat Forum
A "Short List" from the Antiquariaat Forum
By Michael Stillman
This printing from the Antiquariaat Forum isn't quite a catalogue. Perhaps its title describes it best: "Short Title List with recent acquisitions and a selection from our stock." This is a piece prepared by this Netherlands bookseller for the 20th International Antiquarian Book Fair held in Melbourne, Australia, in October. There is much material on voyages, and certainly a share of them visited Australia. However, while there's an Australian tilt, there are many items of interest to those whose collections focus on another hemisphere, or the other side of the equator.
Charles Lucien was not the most famous member of the Bonaparte family, but he was better known among the birding community than Uncle Napoleon. Bonaparte produced a supplement to Alexander Wilson's "American Ornithology" when the latter, known as the Father of American Ornithology, died in 1813. Wilson's and Bonaparte's works would be supplanted as the most famous books of American ornithology a few years later by the one produced by John James Audubon. In fact, Bonaparte was one of those who encouraged young Audubon in his career. Item 6 is a collection of seven other works, in French, produced by this other Bonaparte. Priced at EU4,950 (those are Euros. American equivalent is $6,316).
Sticking to the Napoleonic theme, item 40 is Voyage de decouvertes aux Terres Australes by Peron and De Freycinet. This is the second edition of a French expedition to the south coast of Australia under the command of Baudin. One of their major tasks was to find the strait which divides the Australian continent into two halves. Naturally, they did not succeed in finding it. EU35,000 (US $44,657).
Here's the book Napoleon should have read. It is Travels in Kamtschatka, during the years 1787 and 1788 by Jean Baptiste de Lesseps. This is the first English translation from 1790 of a difficult journey from Kamtschatka through Siberia and on to Paris. Perhaps if Napoleon better understood the dangers of the Russian continent he would have made wiser choices. Item 33. EU2,950 (US $3,764).
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Voyages And More From The Antiquariaat Forum
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The mutiny on the Bounty is probably the best-known mutiny ever, thanks to the 1930s novel and movie of that name. Here's the real story, written by Captain Bligh himself. The title is A Narrative of the Mutiny on Board His Majesty's Ship Bounty. Bligh recounts the insubordination, and the harrowing escape and survival he and a few loyal seamen managed. Bligh's tale, naturally, is far more sympathetic to the Captain than the book and movie version which would appear a century and a half later. Item 5 is a 1790 first edition. EU11,500 (US $14,673).
Finding a Northwest Passage was something of a hopeless obsession for voyagers for over a century. There just wasn't an easy way. Locating a Northeast Passage to India was even harder. Give credit to Constantine Phipps for making the attempt. The voyage never got anywhere close to India, being stopped by ice in the area of Spitsbergen Island. However, they did add much to the world's scientific knowledge of the polar region. The book is A Voyage Towards the North Pole, and was published in 1774, a year after the trip took place. EU4,000 (US $5,106).
William Harvey is responsible for one of the most important discoveries of human anatomy and medical science, the circulation of blood. At the time (early 1600s), the belief was that the lungs, not the heart, moved the blood around. It was also believed that the body consumed the blood, rather than it being a closed, circulatory system designed to bring nutrients to the body. Harvey's extensive experiments on human cadavers and live animals established the nature of the circulatory system, though it would take several decades for the medical practice to fully accept his ideas. Item 22 is a second edition of Harvey's De motu cordis & sanguinis in animalibus, anatomica exercitation, published in 1639. EU40,000 (US $51,058).
Now for something different. Item 60 is Thomas Wilson's The Correct Method of German & French Waltzing. This is an 1817 second edition of this book of instructions complete with illustrations on how not to trip over your partner's toes. You should buy this book for your children. They don't know how to waltz. EU3,610 (US $4,600).
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Richard Hakluyt was an English geographer who determined to write down the history of world voyages, particularly those of Englishmen, at the dawn of the 17th century. After publishing a one-volume edition of his most famous work in 1589, he came back to greatly expand his writing a decade later. Item 21 is a copy of that three-volume second edition from 1599-1600 of The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. It remains one of the most important books of voyages and discovery four centuries later. Item 21. EU26,900 (US $34,304).
We will close with a book by George Psalmanaazaar, An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa, dated 1704. If you would like to know more about life on the island now better known as Taiwan three hundred years ago, don't read this book. It's a fraud. So was George Psalmanaazaar. Anytime you see someone with six "a's" in their last name, watch out. Psalmanaazaar passed himself off as a native convert to the Church of England, when in reality he was a Frenchman. His history and even geography of Formosa was made up. Speaking of this book, Boswell, in his "Life of Johnson," states, "So gross is the forgery that it almost passes belief that it was widely accepted as a true narrative." Among Psalmanaazaar's claims, Boswell points out, was that "he asserted also that in an island that is only about half as large as Ireland 18,000 boys were
sacrificed every year." Boswell further notes that Protestant England was willing to accept Psalmanaazaar's lies because many of them were directed against the Catholic Jesuits. Late in life, Psalmanaazaar would finally admit to the fraud. Item 43. EU1,950 (US $2,483).
The Antiquariaat Forum may be found online at www.forumrarebooks.com, or reached by phone at 31 (0)30 6011955.
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