JAMES, THOMAS. The Strange and Dangerous Voyage of Captaine Thomas Iames, in his intended Discouery of the Northwest Passage into the South Sea. London: by Iohn Legatt for Iohn Partridge 1633. Small 4to, early nineteenth-century mottled calf, arms blind-stamped on sides, smooth spine in six gilt-panelled compartments, edges speckled in green, modern folding chemise and morocco-backed slipcase, rubbed, a couple of gouges to covers, the first and last few leaves washed but still slightly discolored, two neatly repaired tears to inner edge of the folding map, without the first leaf blank, paper damage to fol. D2 from sticky substance, with partial loss to 10 letters including 2 on facing page, headline on R3r shaved, FIRST EDITION, folding engraved map of James's voyage with portrait vignette, with blank leaf Q4, S4v signed "William Watts."

細節

JAMES, THOMAS. The Strange and Dangerous Voyage of Captaine Thomas Iames, in his intended Discouery of the Northwest Passage into the South Sea. London: by Iohn Legatt for Iohn Partridge 1633. Small 4to, early nineteenth-century mottled calf, arms blind-stamped on sides, smooth spine in six gilt-panelled compartments, edges speckled in green, modern folding chemise and morocco-backed slipcase, rubbed, a couple of gouges to covers, the first and last few leaves washed but still slightly discolored, two neatly repaired tears to inner edge of the folding map, without the first leaf blank, paper damage to fol. D2 from sticky substance, with partial loss to 10 letters including 2 on facing page, headline on R3r shaved, FIRST EDITION, folding engraved map of James's voyage with portrait vignette, with blank leaf Q4, S4v signed "William Watts."

James's voyage in search of the Northwest Passage was made in 1631-32, and was principally confined to the southeastern part of Hudson Bay, where his crew spent the winter. His account "contains some remarkable physical observations respecting the intensity of the cold, and the accumulation of ice in nothern latitude... The book is rare in any condition, with the map...especially so; its place is often supplied by a facsimile. The gallant explorer has been censured for the lack of geographical information supplied in his book, but the map [of Baffin's Bay and surrounding coasts] is assuredly free from any such blame, for it contains a singularly correct delineation of the high latitudes..."--Sabin 35711; STC 14444; Church 423; Alden 633/32; Lande, Rare and Unusual Canadiana, S1124.