Travel
Contact Jonathan Harrison, Alex Day or Andrea Mazzocchi
We stock Western books in European languages, generally – but not exclusively – published before circa 1850. We are especially interested in early travel accounts – from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries – in all areas beyond Europe.
Geographical regions in which we have tended to specialise include the Pacific and its surrounding countries – South America, the Northwest Coast of America, Japan, China, the maritime regions of Asia, including the Philippines and Indonesia, and Australia. Books on Africa, the polar regions, manuscripts and separately published maps are also handled.-
[BOUDIER DE VILLEMERT, Pierre-Joseph.]
L’Andrometrie, ou examen philosophique de l’homme. Par Monsieur l’Abbé de Villemaire.
Paris, chez Brunet, 1753.
First editions of two scarce works by the philosopher, moralist, and Parisian avocat Boudier de Villemert (1716–1801), best known as the author of L’Ami des Femmes, Le monde joué involving visits from extra-terrestrials both in ancient times and in the eighteenth century.
£2500
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[BOXING.]
The Art of manual Defence; or, System of Boxing: perspicuously explained in a Series of Lessons, and illustrated by Plates....
London, G. Kearsley, ‘1799’ [but 1789].
Third edition, scarce, of an early illustrated English guide to boxing, the first to concentrate on the contemporary sport rather than its history, printed in the same year as the first two editions. The prefatory note to this edition calls attention to the ‘extensive and rapid sale of the former editions’...
£2750
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[BOYER, Abel.]
A View of Paris, and Places adjoining. With an Account of the Court of France; and of the late King James … Written...
London, John Nutt, 1701.
The dedication copy, an apparently unique first issue naming the author at the end of the dedication as Abel Boyer – a new attribution. A political travel guide to Paris, it covers the capital by both topic (Cabarets, Beggars, Extravagance and Luxury) and location (Foire St Germain, Louvre, Fontainebleau).
£1250
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[BOYER de Bandol, Ange-François-Hilaire-Auguste de.]
Mémoire … contre Messire Jean-Baptiste comte de Castelanne, colonel du...
[Paris,] C.F. Simon, 1754.
Two seemingly unrecorded legal documents relating to an extended dispute between the Sieur de Bandol and the Comte de Castelanne over tuna-fishing rights in the Mediterranean.
£225
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BROOKE, Arthur de Capell, Sir.
Travels through Sweden, Norway, and Finmark, to the North Cape ... Second edition.
London, printed for J. Rodwell, 1831.
Second edition (first 1823) of this account of the Scandinavian travels undertaken by Brooke (1791–1858) in 1820, illustrated with attractive lithographs, several after drawings by the author.
£400
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[BROUN, Richard, Sir.]
Memorabilia curliana Mabenensia.
Dumfries, John Sinclair, 1830.
Uncommon first edition of this charming work on the sport of curling by the eccentric Scottish baronet Sir Richard Broun (1801–1858), with a focus on his native Lochmaben, being one of the earliest books on the sport.
£450
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[BRUNEL, Antoine de.]
A journey into Spain.
London, printed for Henry Herringman, 1670.
First edition in English. A free and abridged translation of Voyage d’Espagne curieux, historique et politique, first published anonymously in 1665. Setting out from the Netherlands in 1651 in the company of François van Aerssen, Brunel toured France, Germany and Italy before travelling to...
£950
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BRYDONE, P[atrick].
A Tour through Sicily and Malta. In a series of letters to William Beckford, Esq., of Somerly in Suffolk...
London, W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1775.
Fourth edition of ‘one of the most successful works on Italian travel written in the eighteenth century and … the first important book on Sicily’ (Pine-Coffin).
£250
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[BUNBURY, Henry William.] ‘GAMBADO, Geoffrey’.
Annals of Horsemanship, containing Accounts of accidental Experiments and experimental...
London, W. Nicholson for W. Baynes, 1808.
Third edition of Bunbury’s satirical work with humorous etchings. First published in 1791 and often presented as a continuation of Bunbury’s Academy for grown Horsemen (published in 1784 also under the name Gambado), the Annals of Horsemanship is a parody of Arthur Young’s Annals...
£475
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[BUNBURY, Henry William.] ‘GAMBADO, Geoffrey’.
An Academy for grown Horsemen, containing the completest Instructions for Walking,...
London, W. Dickinson, S. Hooper, and Messrs Robinsons, 1787 [colophon: Mount Vernon (NY), William Edwin Rudge, 1929].
Limited edition, reprinted from the first, numbered 142 of 400 copies. A humorous parody of the manuals on horsemanship so fashionable in the late eighteenth century, Bunbury’s text was published pseudonymously as Geoffrey Gambado but the plates credited to his own name, with reference to the illustrator...
£85
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BUONACCORSI, Biagio, and Niccolò VALORI.
Diario de’ successi piu importanti seguiti in Italia, & particolarmente in Fiorenza...
Florence, Filippo & Jacopo Giunta, 1568.
First edition of an insider account of Medici politics by Biagio Buonaccorsi (1472–1522), colleague and confidant of Machiavelli, bound with the first edition of Malespini’s history of Florence and owned by Claude-Enoch Virey, secretary to Henri II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé.
£850
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BURCKHARDT, Johann Ludwig (John Lewis).
Travels in Arabia, comprehending an account of those territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans...
London, Henry Colburn, 1829.
First edition, in one volume, recounting Johann Ludwig Burckhardt’s journey to Mecca on behalf of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa in 1814.
£3750
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BURNET, Gilbert.
Bishop Burnet’s Travels through France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland: describing their Religion, Learning,...
London, T. Payne, 1750.
Later edition of Burnet’s account of the political and religious character of Europe on the eve of the Glorious Revolution; this is the first edition to include ‘A short Character of the Bishop and his Works’.
£150
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[CAESAR.] RAMUS, Petrus (Pierre de la RAMÉE).
Liber de militia C. Julii Caesaris, cum praefatione Joannis Thomae Freigii.
Frankfurt, heirs of Andreas Wechel, 1584.
An attractively bound copy of Ramus’s uncommon treatise on Caesar’s military tactics, with unusual edge decoration. The humanist Petrus Ramus (1515–1572) published widely on classical history and grammar while teaching at the Collège de France. He was briefly forced from his post after converting...
£450
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CAMDEN, William.
Britain, or a chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, and...
London, Francis Kingston, Robert Young, and John Legat, for Joyce Norton, and Richard Whitaker, 1637.
Second edition in English (first 1610) of Camden’s monumental Britannia (1586), printed for Joyce Norton.
£4500
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CAMPBELL, Thomas.
Gertrude of Wyoming; a Pennsylvanian Tale. And other Poems.
London, T. Bensley, for the Author ... 1809.
First edition of Campbell’s most re-printed poem, based on a massacre of American patriots by British forces and their Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) allies in 1778. Its portrayal of ‘pastoral innocence evoked only to be destroyed by the savagery of war (embodied in this case by Mohawk allies of the British)...
£650
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CARDONNEL, Adam de.
Picturesque Antiquities of Scotland [I–II] …
London: Printed for the Author, and sold by Edwards … also by Edwards’s, in Halifax. 1788.
First edition, the very rare issue with the plates in sepia, printed directly onto thick wove paper.
£975
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CAREY, Henry Charles.
The Past, the Present and the Future.
Philadelphia, Carey & Hart, 1848.
First edition. Carey vigorously appeals for tariff protection and attacks the Ricardian theory of rent. He argues that ‘the historical sequence of cultivation at least in the United States was the exact reverse of the one proposed by Ricardo, namely, from inferior to superior land, apparently because...
£375
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[CAVALRY.]
Cours d’équitation militaire, a l’usage des corps de troupes a cheval, approuvé par s. exc. le ministre de la guerre.
Saumur, H. Fournier for A. Degouy and Névo-Degouy, and Paris, Anselin, 1830.
First edition of an encyclopædic work on horsemanship for the use of the French cavalry, with the suite of plates. ‘L’ouvrage est en effet une veritable encyclopédie hippique : hippologie, extérieur, emploi à la selle, au trait et au bat, alimentation, hygiène, maladies et accidens, haras et...
£225
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CHIANG Yee.
The Silent Traveller in Edinburgh.
[Edinburgh, Constable, for] London, Methuen, 1948.
First edition, signed, of this unusual Edinburgh travelogue by an exiled Chinese writer and artist, illustrated throughout by the author with sketches and paintings in his distinctive style.
£180