Asia, Americana
One of the earliest work about French Guiana
Rare first edition of the account of the mission to Cayenne undertaken by the French in 1652.
An exceptional copy which belonged to one of the survivors of the expedition,
Father Jacques Aléaume, who inserted at the time in his copy
a map of Cayenne richly annotated in his own hand.
BIET, Antoine. Voyage de la France Equinoxiale en l’isle de Cayenne, entrepris par les François en l’année MDCLII. Divisé en trois Livres. Le premier, contient l’établissement de la Colonie, son embarquement, & sa route jusques à son arrivée en l’Isle de Cayenne.
Le Second, ce qui s’est passé pendant quinze mois que l’on a demeuré dans le païs.
Le Troisième, traitte du temperament du païs, de la fertilité de la terre, & des mœurs & façons de faire des Sauvages de cette contrée.
Avec un Dictionnaire de la Langue du mesme Païs.
Paris, François Clouzier, 1664.
4to [230 x 173 mm] (12) ll. (title, dedication, foreword, table, privilege), 432 pp., 1 folding map with a flap.
Bound in contemporary full brown granite-like calf, spine ribbed and decorated, red morocco lettering-piece with little loss, mottled edge. Joints lightly rubbed.
Rare first edition of the account of the attempt of the establishment of a colony in Cayenne undertaken by the French in 1652.
It is one of the earliest works about French Guiana.
Streit 1974 ; Leclerc 2236 ; Brunet, I, 941 ; Chadenat 18 ; Sabin 5269 ; Picot, Catalogue Rothschild, 1993 ; Rahir, La Bibliothèque de l’amateur, 323 ; Bulletin de la librairie Morgand et Fatout, 9094 ; Huth 167 ; Field, An Essay towards an Indian Bibliography, 127 ; Rich 334 ; Arents 287.
« Very rare » (Morgand et Fatout).
« No relation throws as much light as Biet’s one on the natives of Guiana; he described them in their primitive simplicity. The vocabulary of their language is composed with care, and it is preceded with useful remarks concerning the language of Galibis people common to all the inhabitants of the coast from the amazons’ river. » Biblioth. Des Voyages ». (Chadenat).
« An account of the conquest of French Guinea. The country and nations are very accurately described». (Bohn, Catalogue of a very select collection of books, 562).
“The first book contains an account of Cayenne; the second the history of the first fifteen years; and the third of the natives, who are very accurately described. A vocabulary of their language is added.” (Pinkerton).
Antoine Biet, born about 1620 in the diocese of Senlis, is a French missionary who embarked for Cayenne in 1652 with a 600 settlers troop sent to America by a company which owned the colony. The venture had a terrible ending, and Biet had to devote himself to his companions’ relief, as they were the victims of diseases and poverty. He came back to France after a fifteen months stay in America and started to write the relation of his travel.
The first two books give a detailed account of the preparation of the expedition and of the settlement of the colony in Cayenne, which ends in a big failure as hunger and diseases quickly decimate the settlers.
The conflicts with the natives are also described in this second part. The third book is a detailed study of the island and its population.
The Dictionnaire de la Langue des Sauvages Galibis given by Biet, which fills pages 399 to 432, is of the highest interest.
The Galibis Indians live dispersed among Guiana, Surinam, Guyana, Brazil and Venezuela.
« Father de Marivault was appointed director of the colony in the country: the two others were Messrs de Vertaumon and Isambert. In accordance with the colony’s demand, Father de Marivault took care of things spiritual, helped by 4 other clergymen, Messrs Chasteau, Colsonet, Aleaume and Biet. »
A very precious copy which belonged to Father Jacques Aleaume, one of the 4 clergymen who took part in the expedition to Guiana, and the only one who survived the adventure with the book’s author, Antoine Biet.
Biet mentions several times the name of his colleague during his account:
-p.4: « Le sieur Abbé de l’Isle de Marivault associa six Ecclesiastiques avec lui, deux desquels manquèrent de courage après sa mort, les autres quatre ont passé dans le pays, à savoir les sieurs Chasteau, Colsonet, Aleaume et moi ».
-p.26 : « On mit dans chaque vaisseau deux Ecclesiastiques, pour avoir soin du spirituel ; j’étais dans l’Admiral avec Monsieur Chasteau, & dans le saint Pierre étaient Messieurs Colsonet & Aleaume ».
-p.129: « Le sieur de Vertaumon Gouverneur du Fort commence à faire paraître par ses intrigues qu’il voulait se rendre absolu & indépendant des Seigneurs de la Compagnie, qui étaient dans le pays […]. Il ne voulait pas que l’Ecclesiastique que je lui avais laissé, & qu’il m’avait demandé avec instance, fut dépendant de moi, ni de qui que ce fut. La place que je tenais dans la Colonie faisait que tous les Ecclesiastiques dépendaient entièrement de moi. Je lui avais donné le sieur Aleaume, très homme de bien, & très docte, en qualité de Chappelain, pour assister dans le fort la Garnison, & administrer les Sacrements aux malades seulement ».
-p.140: On February 5th 1653, a peace treaty written by Biet is signed by various Lords of the Colony; within appears the following article: « Ledit sieur Vertaumon se charge de fournir des vivres de ceux qu’il a, & qu’il aura des Sauvages & de la Compagnie, au sieur Aleaume Chappelain du fort & à son Clerc, … ».
-p. 191 : In the passage relating the « fuite honteuse du sieur de Vertaumon & de tous ses adherans dans la Barque, après avoir pillé le fort », Biet informs us of the way Jacques Aléaume left Guiana, on April 10th 1953 : « Le 9e jour d’Avril […], le sieur de Vertaumon faisait transporter dans la barque le meilleur qui appartenait à la Compagnie […]. Il débaucha Monsieur Aléaume Chapelain du fort, à qui il fit emporter les ornements nécessaires pour célébrer la Sainte Messe […]. Le plus grand pirate & forban de la mer n’aurait pas agi de la sorte ».
Among the 5 clergymen gone on this expedition to Guiana, Fathers Biet and Aleaume were the only ones to survive the difficult life conditions of the colony.
Father Aléaume was in a way saved from famine, which was decimating the colony, thanks to his fort’s chaplain position because Mr de Vertaumon who was running this fort had taken control of food, and was keeping the main part of it for the men working for him.
Besides, an old document told us that Jacques Aléaume was the priest of the church Saint-Paul of Orleans in 1665.
The present copy is grangerized. Actually Jacques Aléaume, its original owner, inserted at the time a detailed map of the colony in the volume, entitled Carte de l’Isle Cayenne située à 5 degrés de latitude Septentrionale, en la Terre-Ferme de l’Amérique appelée vulgairement Güaiane, Coste sauvage Roïaume du Roy doré, pais des Amazones et aujourd’hui France Equinoctiale. Paris, chez Jacques Lagniet, s.d. (1664-1672).
This rare map is recorded in the Inventaire du fonds français, graveurs du XVIIe siècle. (Bibliothèque nationale, Département des estampes ; [réd.] par Roger-Armand Weigert,… - Paris : Bibliothèque nationale, 1973) sous le n° 421 (p.124).
The present copy is of the highest interest because Jacques Aléaume, who took part in the 1652 expedition, inserted in his copy a map of the colony engraved by Lagniet, and he also added on it many handwritten information.
He indicates with his pen: the « pointe de Mahury », the « Rivière de Mahury », the « tribus difficiles en 1652 », the « Anse de Rémire », « l’Ile aux lézards », the « Montagne de Romata », the « crique », the « Colline de Conabo », the « fontaine », the « Pointe de Ceperou », the « Mont de Ceperou », the « Fort de Saint Michel Ceperou », …
Aléaume also drew various habitations on the map, such as “carbets”, the “Habitations de Mahury”, “l’Habitation du sauvage Appoto”, the one of “Biraumont”…
He gives very precise details concerning some parts of the map: « Grande anse où les barques ou chaloupes peuvent aborder… », « Rivière de Cayenne qui a … à son embouchure » …
This map is especially interesting because Aléaume added to it a 12 x 16 cm paper portion on which he drew a part of Cayenne which is not represented on the printed map, situated on the west side of the fort where he lived. Aléaume represented on this document the boats at the colony’s disposal (boats, pirogues), the rivers of Corou and Macouriague, and the houses of some savages, including the one of Pepora, drawn on the banks of the river of Corou.
An exceptional copy of this account of the terrible mission to Cayenne undertaken in 1652 by the French, which belonged to one of the two clergymen who survived the disaster, and who grangerized it with a map of Cayenne covered with his detailed handwritten notes.
Provenance: handwritten ex libris of Jacques Aliaume and ex libris with arms of Henry Somerset, second duc de Beaufort (1684-1711) on the paste-down.
ABPC lists only one copy of the present work in a contemporary binding without any restoration that appeared on the market since 1975.
Price: €19 000
A pocket-atlas from the 17th century
Ortelius’ pocket-atlas in Italian, complete with its 108 full-page maps,
preserved in its contemporary binding.
Venice, 1667.
ORTELIUS, Abraham. Theatro del mondo.
Venetia, Per Scipion Banca, 1667.
16mo [133 x 93 mm] of (4) ll., 232 pp., (8) ll. 108 full-page engraved maps.
Bound in contemporary stiff vellum. Handwritten exlibris on the half-title: « Bibliotheca Neorelli ».
Italian pocket-edition of Ortelius’ atlas, illustrated with 108 full-page engraved maps.
Philips 478 ; Tooley 31.
« The commercial success of the pocket-atlas was considerable. It was translated into French and Latin (now in prose) and was reprinted several times, long after Pieter Heyns had moved into the Netherlands together with his son Zacharias in 1588. In the year of Pieter Heyn’s death (1598), his son, Zacharias, then living in Amsterdam, repeated the successful best-seller of his father by publishing another Miroir du Monde, using woodcut”. Koeman.
The illustration contains a world map and the continents’ maps: Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. The 103 other maps represent each country for which a note has been written on the opposite page.
The first edition in Italian was printed in 1608.
A charming copy preserved in its contemporary vellum binding.
Price: € 9 500
La Mottraye’s great travels through Europe, Asia and Africa
La Mottraye’s great travel through Europe, Asia and Africa,
illustrated in the first issue with William Hogarth’s engravings.
One of the rare copies printed on large-paper.
The Hague, 1727.
LA MOTTRAYE, Aubry de. Voyages du Sieur A. de La Motraye, en Europe, Asie et Afrique. Où l’on trouve une grande variété de recherches géographiques, historiques et politiques, sur l’Italie, la Grèce, la Turquie, la Tartarie, Crimée, & Nogaye, la Circassie, la Suède, la Laponie, etc… avec des remarques instructives sur les mœurs, coutumes, opinions &c. des peuples & des païs où l’Auteur a voyagé […]
La Haye, T. Johnson & J. Van Duren, 1727.
2 volumes folio [368 x 235 mm] of I/ (7) ll., 1 frontispiece, 472 pp., 23 pp., and 31 plates out of pagination including 6 folding plates and 10 on double-page; II/ 1 frontispiece, (3) ll., 496 pp., 39 pp., 18 plates including 7 on double-page and 2 maps on double page. Title-pages printed in black and red.
Bound in contemporary granite-like calf, double blind-stamped fillets on covers, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fleurons, red mottled edges.
First French edition of Aubry de la Mottraye’s important travel through Europe, Asia and Africa.
Chadenat 105 ; Blackmer 946.
Aubry de La Mottraye settled in Constantinople in 1698 to practise freely the Protestant religion. He had already visited Italia, Jaffa, Alexandria, Tripoli, Mahn Harbour, and Lisbon and had followed Tallard to England. He met Tekeli in Constantinople and travelled through Anatolia up to the Black Sea. He sailed to Malta and then towards Barcelona. La Mottraye stroke up a friendship with F.E. Fabrice, an agent of Charles XII towards 1711, and followed him to Bendery. Constant travels between Constantinople and Didymoteicho occupied him until 1714.
He left for Sweden with Fabrice and went up to Laponia.
« In his travels, La Mottraye focuses on the habits and customs and reveals many peculiar anecdotes about characters whose names became famous in history. »
Bibliographers emphasize the beauty of the illustrations due to William Hogarth’s talent, one of the most famous English artists from the 18th century.
The present work is illustrated in the first issue with 47 very fine engravings out of pagination drawn by William Hogarth, most of them being folding or double-page engravings, with 2 frontispieces and 4 maps.
Drawn with talent and originality, they represent with elegance and movement customs scenes, characters, costumes, and monuments from the countries visited by La Mottraye.
Hogarth shows here a very particular verve as « the first English painter to have an indisputable personality. »
« A peculiar work, sought-after for its 46 plates, almost all drawn by W. Hogarth, one of the most famous English artists from the 18th century. Besides it contains 4 maps. »
(Chadenat)
An exceptional copy printed on large-paper, especially wide-margined (height: 368 mm). An ordinary copy is approximately 315 mm high, that is to say 53 mm shorter than this one.
Price: € 15 000
Rare first edition of the first French book ever published about Siam
Rare first edition of the first French book ever published about Siam.
Paris, 1666.
BOURGES, Jacques de. Relation du voyage de Monseigneur l’évêque de Beryte Vicaire apostolique du royaume de la Cochinchine, Par la Turquie, la Perse, les Indes, &c. jusqu’au Royaume de Siam & autres lieux. Par M. de Bourges, Prêtre, Missionnaire Apostolique.
Paris, chez Denys Bechet, 1666.
8vo [179 x 113 mm], (1) bl.l., (6) ll., 1 folding map, 245 pp., (3) pp., (1) bl.l. Bound in contemporary brown granite-like calf, spine ribbed and decorated, mottled edges. Contemporary binding.
Rare first edition of the first French book ever published about Siam.
Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 827-828; Brunet, I 1179.
“The first contacts between France of Louis XIV and Siam of Phra Naraï go back to the years 1660s, when some vicar apostolic and some ecclesiastics of the young foreign missions of Paris came to Ayutthaya, the capital of the Kingdom of Siam. Jacques de Bourges belonged to the first group of missionaries which arrived at Ayutthaya in 1662. He is the author of the first French book ever published about Siam, the Relation du voyage de Monseigneur l’évêque de Beryte [...] jusqu’au Royaume de Siam, published in Paris in 1666. It is a traditional travel report that gives an account of the mainly ground journey into Siam (the adventure) and a systematic description of this Kingdom (the inventory).”
“Monseigneur Lambert de La Motte and the apostolic missionaries Jacques de Bourges and François Deydier embarked for Alexandrette in Marseille in November 1660. That’s where they began the journey which would take them through Aleppo, Baghdad, Basrah and Isphahan to Bandar Abbas. They would cross the Indian subcontinent up to Masulipatam on the Coromandel Coast.
After an extremely tiring journey of 21 months they arrived in Ayuthia, the capital of the Kingdom of Siam, in August 1662.
This memorable journey is well-known to us thanks to the Relation du voyage de Monseigneur l’évêque de Beryte Vicaire apostolique du royaume de la Cochinchine, Par la Turquie, la Perse, les Indes, &c. jusqu’au Royaume de Siam & autres lieux, par M. de Bourges (Denys Bechet, Paris 1666, republished in 1668 and 1683). Twenty years before the Siamese style came into vogue (in 1685-1688), the Relation of Jacques de Bourges gives us the first French report and description of Siam at the beginning of the reign of Somdet Phra Naraï, who will seek the friendship of Louis XIV.”
(De branche en branche. Etudes sur le XVIIe et le XVIIIe siècle français. Dirk Van der Cruysse).
THE PRESENT WORK IS ILLUSTRATED WITH A FOLDING MAP engraved by Du Val RETRACING THE ROUTE OF THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES FROM PARIS TO SIAM.
A WIDE-MARGINED COPY PRESERVED IN ITS CONTEMPORARY BINDING OF THIS INTERESTING TRAVEL REPORT OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE FOR THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIAM IN THE 17TH CENTURY.
No copy of this rare original edition is recorded in ABPC since 1989.
Price: € 11 500
Very precious work for the history of Mexico
Very rare first edition of this precious work for the history of Mexico City.
Mexico, 1637.
CEPEDA, Fernando de / CARRILLO, Fernando Alfonso. Relacion Universal legitima, y verdadera del sitio en que esta fundada la muy noble, insigne, y muy leal Ciudad de Mexico, cabeça de las Provincias de toda la Nueva Espana. Lagunas, Rios, y Montes que la cinen y rodean. Calçadas que las dibiden. Y Azequias que la atraviesan. Ynundaciones que à padecido desde su Gentilidad. Remedios aplicados. Desagues propuestos, y emprendidos. Origen y fabrica del de Gueguetoca, y estado en que oy se halla. Ymposiciones, derramas, y gastos que se an hecho. Forma con que se a auctuado desde el ano de 1553 hasta el presente de 1637. [Avec la suite].
Mexico, Francisco Salbago, 1637.
4 parts bound in 1 volume folio [278 x 196 mm], (2) ff., 31 ff., 41 ff. (misnumbered 42), 41 ff. numbered 1 to 28 and 29 to 39 ( ff. 17-18 are repeated), (1) l., 11 ff. Complete copy.
Bound in contemporary brown calf, decorated spine, new endleaves, edges red. Joints rubbed.
Very rare first edition of this precious work for the history of Mexico City.
Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 1095 ; Brunet, I, 1739 ; Graesse, Trésor de livres rares, 103 ; Sabin 11693 ; Medina, La imprenta en México, II, 484.
Written 8 years after the terrible flood that devastated Mexico City in 1629, « this very rare book contains an official account of the celebrated Desaque, or canal of Gueguetoca, called, by Humboldt, Huehuetoca, which was constructed to carry off the superabundant waters of the lake of Mexico. Humboldt gives a full account of this stupendous undertaking. Rich”. (Sabin).
The fourth part of the book was printed 3 months after the publication of the work and is often missing.
A precious complete copy, with the very rare fourth part, preserved in its contemporary binding.
A very rare work. Among French institutions, only the B.n.F. has a copy. OCLC only records 2 complete copies: University of California, Berkeley and University of Oxford.
Not one of the 3 copies that appeared at auction since 1975 had the fourth part of the text.
Price: €45 000
The massacre of the Christians by the Iroquois
A rare relation describing the massacre of the Christians by the Iroquois in Canada.
A genuine copy preserved in its contemporary limp vellum.
RAGUENEAU, Paul. Relation de ce qui s’est passé en la Mission des Pères de la Compagnie de Jesus aux Hurons, pays de la Nouvelle France, és années 1648 & 1649.
Envoyée au R. P. Hierosme Lalemant, Supérieur des Missions de la Compagnie de Jesus, en la Nouvelle France. Par le P. Paul Ragueneau, de la mesme Compagnie.
Paris, Sébastien Cramoisy et Gabriel Cramoisy, 1650.
8vo [169 x 105 mm], (4) pp., 116. Bound in full contemporary limp vellum, handwritten title on spine.
Second enlarged edition of this rare Jesuit relation describing the massacre of the Hurons by the Iroquois.
Streit 2577 ; Sabin 67492 ; Church 506 ; Harrisse 91 ; Brunet, Supp. II, 455.
Ragueneau (1608-1680) is one of the main authors of the “Jesuit Relations” relating the story of the Canadian martyrs. He went to the Huron country in 1637 in order to try to convert the people. Five of the missionaries who worked with him were martyred: Antoine Daniel was killed on the 4th of July 1648, Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were tortured and killed in March 1649. Ragueneau became the Father Superior of the mission in 1645.
« The ‘Relation’ furnishes an interesting account of the state of the mission in the years 1648, and 1649, and gives a thrilling sketch of the horrors attending the destruction of the Christian villages of St. Joseph and of St. Ingnatius, by incursions of the Iroquois, the most deadly enemies of the Hurons, and of the Christian name”. (The Catholic Cabinet, p. 22).
The present edition is of the utmost interest as it comprises a passage of 13 pages printed at the end of the volume that appears here for the first time. It contains interesting new information about the missions to Canada.
A fresh and crisp copy of this sought after relation, preserved in its contemporary vellum.
ABPC doesn’t list any copy of the first edition of this text.
Only one copy of this edition has appeared at auction since 1975: the Lionel Robinson’s copy, sold by Sotheby’s London on the 26th of June 1986 to Lake. That same copy was sold again by Sotheby’s NY at the Frank T. Siebert sale on the 21st of May 1999 for $ 16 000 (about € 15 000). It was described in those terms in the auction catalogue: “bottom margin on title-page expertly extended, later stiff vellum”.
Price: € 23 000
The Indian Tribes from Canada in the 17th Century
The Indian tribes from Canada at the end of the 17th Century.
Paris, 1688.
[SAINT-VALLIER (Jean Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de)]. Estat present de l’Eglise et de la colonie françoise dans la Nouvelle France, par m. l’Evêque de Québec.
Paris, chez Robert Pepie, 1688.
8vo [185 x 117 mm], (1) l., title, 267 pp., (1) l. Bound in contemporary granite-like calf, spine ribbed and decorated, with the letter “P” stamped in the lower compartment, mottled edges. Two old manuscript ex libris on title-page.
Rare first edition of this great description of the Indian tribes from Canada and their relationships with French colonists.
Brunet, supp., II, 567; Church 707 ; Harrisse, 159 ; Leclerc, p. 331, 1358 ; Chadenat, 4947.
Jean de Saint-Vallier was appointed bishop of Quebec and decided to visit his diocese from May 1685 to January 1687. The following year, on his return to France, he published the account of his impressions in the form of a long letter addressed to one of his friends.
The trip to Acadia occupies a large part of the work, and then the author describes the Hurons and other people.
This very rare first edition was also published the same year under a different title (Relation des missions de la Nouvelle France), and it was reissued in 1856.
Very fresh and wide-margined copy, preserved in its original binding in brown calf.
Price: €6 500
First edition of one of the rarest Mexican grammars
First edition of one of the rarest Mexican grammars
preserved in its contemporary limp vellum.
VETANCURT, Père Augustin de. Arte de lengua mexicana, dispuesto Por orden, y mandato de N. Rmo P. Fr. Francisco Trevino, Predicador Theologo, Padre de la Santa Provincia de Burgos, y Comissario General de todas las de la Nueva-Espana […]. Dedicado al bienaventurado San Antonio de Padua por el P. Fr. Augustin de Vetancurt hijo de la dicha Provincia del Santo Evangelio, Predicador jubilado ex Lector de Theologia, y Preceptor de la lengua Mexicana, Vicario de la Capilla de San Joseph de los Naturales en el Convento de N. P. S. Francisco de Mexico.
Mexico, Francisco Rodriguez Lupercio, 1673.
Small 4to [199 x 137 mm], (1) bl.l, (6) ff., 50 ff. misnumbered 49, (8) ff. Woodcut vignette on title-page. Bound in original limp vellum, flat spine.
First edition, printed in Mexico City, of one of the rarest and the most valuable Mexican grammars.
Streit, Bibliotheca Missionum, 2326 ; Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 2337 ; Sabin 99384 ; Graff 4475 ; Palau 361209 ; Brunet, supp. II, 874 ; Chadenat, 4698.
Father Augustin de Vetancurt was born in Mexico City in 1620. He quickly took holy orders and spent almost all his life with the Indians. He knew the Mexican language very well.
At the end of the book, 8 ff. contain an « Instruccion breve para administrar los Santos Sacrametos de la Confession, Viatico, Matrimonio y Velaciones en la lengua Mexicana » and a « Catecismo Mexicano ».
All the bibliographers emphasize that this work is of high quality and very rare.
A very fine copy preserved in its contemporary limp vellum.
Only one copy of this original edition preserved in a contemporary binding has appeared at auction in the last thirty years.
Provenance: handwritten inscription on title: “Agosto 29 de (17)48 le compro, de Mendoza” and autograph signature on the first leaf: “Bernardo Man. De Mendoza”.
Price: €19 000
Commercial Treatise Dedicated to America
First edition of this commercial treatise dedicated to America and the colonies.
MARQUARD, Johanne. Tractatus politico-juridicus de jure mercatorum et commerciorum singulari. Libri IV.
Francfort, Thomae Matthiae Gotzii, 1662.
2 parts in 1 volume folio [316 x 190 mm], (7) ff. with the engraved frontispiece by Daniel Theobald, title, preface, table, …, 572 pp.; (2) ff., 744 pp. and (69) ff. Some slight browning.
Bound in contemporary stiff vellum, flat spine with handwritten title, edges blue.
Rare first edition of this important commercial treatise dedicated to America and the colonies.
Leclerc 948; Sabin 44661; Brunet, Supp. I, 969.
Mainly written in Latin, this treatise also has some passages in French, Spanish and German.
Pages 375 to 540 of the second part contain the exact reprinting of the exceedingly rare first edition of the “Argonautica Gustaviana” by W. Usselinx.
Sabin describes it as follows: « A politico-juridical treatise on commercial law. It is one of those books whose importance is by no means indicated by the title, and is of interest for the history of the Swedish South Company and its settlement in Pennsylvania. The original editions of some documents reprinted in this collection are lost ».
A fine copy bound in contemporary stiff vellum.
None copy of this work has appeared on the public market for the last 30 years.
Price: €7 500
The charter creating “East India Company”
The charter officialising the creation of the “East India Company”
on Colbert’s initiative.
Paris, 1665.
[COMPAGNIES DES INDES ORIENTALES]. Déclarations du Roy, L’une, Portant establissement d’une Compagnie pour le Commerce des Indes Orientales. L’autre en faveur des Officiers de son Conseil & Cours Souveraines interessées en ladite Compagnie, & en celle des Indes Occidentales. Registrées en la Cour des Monnoyes le 27 janvier 1665.
Paris, chez Sebastien Cramoisy, et Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy, 1665.
4to [214 x 164 mm], 32 pp. Cased boards.
A precious document officialising the creation of the “East India Company” (Compagnie des Indes Orientales), on Colbert’s initiative.
This Company had three main objectives: the trade and the struggle against English and Dutch products, the policy, by asserting French naval supremacy, and the culture and the religion, by spreading French civilization.
Pages 26-29 of the document deal with the “West Indies Company” and with the French presence in America.
A precious copy of one of the main deeds in the commercial and economic history of our country.
It bears handwritten corrections in Herardin’s hand, the king’s adviser and chief clerk of the Royal Mint. Herardin also signed this document and added the indication: « Collationné aux originaux par Moy Conseiller du Roy et greffié en chef à la Cour des Monnoyes. Herardin ».
Price: €7 500