Account of Two Voyages to New-England ...
Item #79388
JOSSELYN, John. An Account of Two Voyages to New-England... London: Printed for Giles Widdows 1674. [8],215,[3],223,[4],224,227-279,[5]pp. (pagination as in Church copy). Complete with license leaf with woodcut printer's device (often lacking), errata leaf, and three pages of final advertisements. Small 8vo. 19th century crushed red morocco by Pratt, boards ruled in gilt with small corner fleurons, spine gilt extra in six compartments, gilt dentelle turn-ins, A.e.g. Bookplates on front pastedown (see below) and front free endpaper. Skillful marginal repairs to license leaf and p.49, trimmed rather close at head without any loss to pagination, interior otherwise quite clean with only very minor scattered foxing and soiling. Very good plus. HOWES J-254, "c." European Americana 674/105. Church 627. Sabin 36672. Stevens, Nuggets 1567. Streeter Sale 635. Vail 162. Wing J1019. ESTC R20234. Siebert Sale 105. Field 780. First edition of a scarce and important 17th-century description of New England, including valuable observations on the natural history of the region: "the earliest work on the Natural History of New England" (Rich). The pagination in this copy agrees with the Church copy; the signatures agree instead with the JCB copy (i.e., leaf B3 is signed). The bookplate on the front pastedown identifies this copy as that of Anson Phelps Stokes and subsequently his son, noteworthy collector, civil rights activist, and canon at the National Cathedral, Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes. Prior to the Stokes family, this copy was owned by the bookseller Henry Stevens (to whom the binding is addressed and at whose sale it sold in 1881), who wrote several catalogues of items at the British Museum and did much to build the Americana collections for the Library of Congress, Lenox Library, and the John Carter Brown Library. Josselyn visited America in 1638-39 and again from 1663 to 1671. Although parts of his history are unreliable and based on inaccurate references, the book is renowned for its valuable firsthand observations of the natural history of New England and the description of relations with indigenous Americans prior to King Philip's War in 1675. His work includes an herbal, with numerous botanical as well as medical and surgical descriptions, and is considered the "first complete description of the flora and fauna of the Middle Atl.
Price: $22,500.00