COXE, William

Les Nouvelles Découvertes des Russes...

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Hotel de Thou, Paris, 1781. Quarto, with engraved maps & plates (some folding); a few stains but a handsome copy in contemporary French mottled calf, gilt spines, red edges. The rare French edition of this famous book on Russian exploration. Coxe, on a journey through Russia, collected, compared and translated Russian journals, collected maps at St Petersburg, consulted with authorities and included several journals 'never before given to the public', directing the 'curious and inquisitive reader' to compare them to Cook's then unpublished journals.

The book is a significant source on Russian exploration and expansion into the northern Pacific, and the attempt to open trade with Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Coxe 'also succeeded in securing additional material (for instance the narrative and maps of Krenitzin and Levashev's 'secret' expedition, the first official Russian government expedition since Bering's second expedition of 1741). He was able to secure this particular information, not widely known at the time even in Russia, from Dr. William Robertson, who in turn obtained it through his friend Dr. Rogerson, first physician to Empress Catherine II...' (Lada-Mocarski).

This edition is not in Sabin, who does record an alternative French edition, an octavo published in Neuchâtel in 1781.

• AUD 2,750.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: 003_075

• bookseller: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)