BURCHETT, Josiah

A Complete History of the Most Remarkable Transactions at Sea...

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J. Walthoe London, 1720. Small folio, engraved allegorical frontispiece, engraved portrait and nineengraved maps (some double-page and some folding) by Herman Moll, some of the maps browned, title in red and black; a clean and crisp copy in early panelled calf, a little rubbed. A very handsome copy of the first general naval history published in the English language, with maps by the famous cartographer Hermann Moll.

Josiah Burchett (1666?-1746) had been the servant and clerk to Samuel Pepys, but the two men fell out. However, Burchett gained the respect and favour of Lord Admiral Edward Russell, serving on his flagship the 100-gun HMS Brittania at the battle of Barfleur in 1692. Burchett returned to a career in Parliament, and was also given the position of Secretary to the Admiralty, a position he held for almost fifty years until he retired at the age of 76.

It was due to his position that Burchett had access to the official reports of the Admiralty, which led him to first publish his Memoirs of Transactions at Sea during the War with France in 1703. It was not until 1720 that he published this greatly expanded work, a key source for naval historians and one of the classics of its age. Burchett surveys the history of shipping beginning with the origins of navigation and the developments of the Egyptians, Phoenicians and Syrians, and continues right through to the most recent battles and engagements. The fine maps are by Hermann Moll, the engraver and cartographer who moved to England in 1678.

The Complete History was reissued in 1995 by John Hattendorf of the US Naval War College.

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• Bestellnummer: 503_613

• Antiquariat: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)