Details
CAPTAIN ROBERT KNOX (1641-1720)
An Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon ... With an Account of the Detaining in Captivity of the Author and Divers Other Englishmen now Living there, and of the Author's Miraculous Escape. London: Richard Chiswell, 1681. 2° (296 x 182mm). Folding double-page engraved map and 15 engraved plates. Retaining initial leaf [A]1 bearing Blackbourne and Wren's approbations and 2-page publisher's advertisement 2C2. (Occasional light spotting or browning, one plate with clean tear, another torn and laid down, a few text leaves with short tears, folding map trimmed at foot, with small hole and neat repairs on verso, lacking portrait). 18th-century English sprinkled calf gilt, covers with gilt fillet borders, turn-ins roll-tooled in blind, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, others decorated with pointillé quatrefoils, red-sprinkled edges (a few small scuff-marks, corners lightly bumped).
FIRST EDITION. KNOX'S CELEBRATED ACCOUNT OF HIS CAPTIVITY AND THE ISLAND OF SRI LANKA. The son of Captain Robert Knox, Robert Knox the younger travelled to India with his father in 1655 to 1657, returning on a second voyage in 1658, during which an accident at sea caused them to land in Kottiar Bay, Sri Lanka in late 1659. However, a breach of etiquette incurred the displeasure of Rajasinha II, King of Kandy, and the two men were taken prisoner, together with the ship's crew; the elder Knox died in captivity in 1661, and the younger eventually escaped in 1679, writing an account of his experiences during the voyage back to England. His account came to the attention of the directors of the East India Company, who recommended its publication, and it was printed by Richard Chiswell, the printer to the Royal Society, with recommendations from Richard Blackbourne of the East India Company and Sir Christopher Wren of the Royal Society, and a preface by Robert Hooke. The work enjoyed a swift success, due to the accuracy and range of the information it contained -- translations into German, Dutch, and French followed within the author's lifetime -- and it informed Daniel Defoe's novels The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) and The Life, Adventures and Pyracies of the Famous Captain Singleton (1720). Indeed, writing in the nineteenth century, Brunet stated: 'Quoique déjà ancienne, cette relation est toujours regardée comme la plus exacte et la plus complète que l'on ait donnée de cette grande île'. Brunet III, col. 683; ESTC R16598; Lowndes II, p. 1289.
An Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon ... With an Account of the Detaining in Captivity of the Author and Divers Other Englishmen now Living there, and of the Author's Miraculous Escape. London: Richard Chiswell, 1681. 2° (296 x 182mm). Folding double-page engraved map and 15 engraved plates. Retaining initial leaf [A]1 bearing Blackbourne and Wren's approbations and 2-page publisher's advertisement 2C2. (Occasional light spotting or browning, one plate with clean tear, another torn and laid down, a few text leaves with short tears, folding map trimmed at foot, with small hole and neat repairs on verso, lacking portrait). 18th-century English sprinkled calf gilt, covers with gilt fillet borders, turn-ins roll-tooled in blind, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, others decorated with pointillé quatrefoils, red-sprinkled edges (a few small scuff-marks, corners lightly bumped).
FIRST EDITION. KNOX'S CELEBRATED ACCOUNT OF HIS CAPTIVITY AND THE ISLAND OF SRI LANKA. The son of Captain Robert Knox, Robert Knox the younger travelled to India with his father in 1655 to 1657, returning on a second voyage in 1658, during which an accident at sea caused them to land in Kottiar Bay, Sri Lanka in late 1659. However, a breach of etiquette incurred the displeasure of Rajasinha II, King of Kandy, and the two men were taken prisoner, together with the ship's crew; the elder Knox died in captivity in 1661, and the younger eventually escaped in 1679, writing an account of his experiences during the voyage back to England. His account came to the attention of the directors of the East India Company, who recommended its publication, and it was printed by Richard Chiswell, the printer to the Royal Society, with recommendations from Richard Blackbourne of the East India Company and Sir Christopher Wren of the Royal Society, and a preface by Robert Hooke. The work enjoyed a swift success, due to the accuracy and range of the information it contained -- translations into German, Dutch, and French followed within the author's lifetime -- and it informed Daniel Defoe's novels The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) and The Life, Adventures and Pyracies of the Famous Captain Singleton (1720). Indeed, writing in the nineteenth century, Brunet stated: 'Quoique déjà ancienne, cette relation est toujours regardée comme la plus exacte et la plus complète que l'on ait donnée de cette grande île'. Brunet III, col. 683; ESTC R16598; Lowndes II, p. 1289.
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