![LE ROY, Petr Ludovik (1699-1774). Relation des avantures arrivées a quatre matelots russes, Jettés par une tempête près de l’Isle deserte d’Ost-Spitzbergen. No place [perhaps St. Petersburg]: no publisher, 1766.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2017/NYR/2017_NYR_15724_0030_000(le_roy_petr_ludovik_relation_des_avantures_arrivees_a_quatre_matelots094742).jpg?w=1)
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LE ROY, Petr Ludovik (1699-1774). Relation des avantures arrivées a quatre matelots russes, Jettés par une tempête près de l’Isle deserte d’Ost-Spitzbergen. No place [perhaps St. Petersburg]: no publisher, 1766.
The first edition in French, first published in German in Riga in 1760, but both editions are rare in commerce. Russians are known to have visited the area as early as 1697, but this is the first detailed account of Russian hunters in Svalbard. With their ship trapped by ice, the party went ashore to locate a hut in which they could winter; returning to the ship to supply the hut they found that it had been driven out to sea by the ice. With no provisions or weapons, they survived on their wits for six years until all (except one who died from scurvy) were rescued accidentally by a ship that had been driven off course. David Roberts popularized the story in his Four Against the Arctic (2003). Sabin 40145.
12mo (160 x 97mm). With the final blank. (Title silked and re-inserted; bifolium B6-B7 sprung but present.) Contemporary sheep (rebacked with most of the original spine; endpapers renewed). Provenance: Wayfarer’s Bookshop.
The first edition in French, first published in German in Riga in 1760, but both editions are rare in commerce. Russians are known to have visited the area as early as 1697, but this is the first detailed account of Russian hunters in Svalbard. With their ship trapped by ice, the party went ashore to locate a hut in which they could winter; returning to the ship to supply the hut they found that it had been driven out to sea by the ice. With no provisions or weapons, they survived on their wits for six years until all (except one who died from scurvy) were rescued accidentally by a ship that had been driven off course. David Roberts popularized the story in his Four Against the Arctic (2003). Sabin 40145.
12mo (160 x 97mm). With the final blank. (Title silked and re-inserted; bifolium B6-B7 sprung but present.) Contemporary sheep (rebacked with most of the original spine; endpapers renewed). Provenance: Wayfarer’s Bookshop.