Terra Australis Cognita: Or, Voyages to the Terra Australis, Or
Item #54646
[CALLANDER, James]. Terra Australis Cognita: Or, Voyages to the Terra Australis, Or Southern Hemisphere, During the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries...With A Preface by the Editor, In Which Some Geographical, Nautical, and Commercial Questions are Discussed. Edinburgh: Printed by A. Donaldson, 1766 - 1768. Three volumes: vi,2,viii,516; [4],692; [2],iv,745pp., plus three folding frontispiece maps. Contemporary calf, ruled in gilt, sympathetically rebacked in matching calf, spines tooled in gilt, gilt leather labels. General chart of the southern hemisphere with a closed split along one fold. Scattered light foxing. Very good. HILL 240. DAVIDSON, p.35. O'REILLY & REITMAN 94. CRITTENDEN 268. SABIN 10053. With the bookplate of Sir Thomas Munro, first baronet and an administrator in India who held important financial and judicial posts, and was eventually made Governor of Madras. An important early collection of texts on the discovery, exploration, natural history, geography and commerce of Australia. Callendar's work takes as its basis that of Comte de Brosses, published ten years earlier, but supplemented by additional material and by Callander's editorial notes. Callander saw Australia as a fertile land for colonization and settlement, and argued that Great Britain, because of her naval dominance, was destined to rule there. He proposed a penal settlement as a base for colonization and further exploration. The work contains many important narratives (some of them included in whole, others in part), including those of Magellan, Drake, Dampier, Tasman, Quiros, Gamboa, Ulloa, Narbrough, Frezier, Anson, and others. The maps include a chart of the Straits of Magellan, another of the southern hemisphere, and a third showing Australia. "A work of great Australian importance, containing forty-one relations of voyages, some for the first time in English....the Callander map is of great interest, particularly when compared with the Tasman map of 1644. Although Van Dieman's Land is still shown as part of the mainland, New Zealand and New Guinea are already known to be separate lands, and in fact the outline of Australia is complete except for the eastern coast, yet to be charted by Cook" - Davidson. "Valuable both for its narratives and for its editorial comments" - Hill. The first volume in this set contai.
Price: $16,500.00