Description of the travals in the Amazon area by Charles-Marie de la Condamine, with engraved map of the Amazon and a view of Cuenca, "Relation abrégée d'un voyage fait dans l'intérieur de l'Amérique méridionale, ...", Maastricht, Dufour & Roux, 1778 A.D.
Author:
Charles Marie de La Condamine (28 January 1701 – 13 February 1774) was a French explorer, geographer, and mathematician. He spent ten years in present-day Ecuador measuring the length of a degree latitude at the equator and preparing the first map of the Amazon region based on astronomical observations.
Title:
"Relation abrégée d'un voyage fait dans l'intérieur de l'Amérique méridionale, Depuis la Côte de la Mer du Sud, jusqu'aux Côtes du Brésil & de la Guyane, en descendant la Riviere des Amazones, Par M. de la Condamine, de l'Académie des Sciences, Avec une Carte du Maragnon, ou de la Riviere des Amazones, levée par le même. Nouvelle Édition, Augmentée de la Relation de l'Emeute populaire de Cuenca au Pérou, Et d'une Lettre de M. Godin des Odonais, contenant la Relation du Voyage de Madam Godin, son epouse, & c. A Maestricht, Chez Jean-Edme Dufour & Philippe Roux, Imprimeurs-Libraires, associés. M. DCC. LXXVIII."
Print:
Maastricht, Dufour & Roux, 1778 A.D.
Description:
The work "Relation abrégée d'un voyage fait dans l'intérieur de l'Amérique méridionale", by Charles-Marie de La Condamine, was published by Dufour & Roux in Maastricht 1778. In 1735 La Condamine was appointed to lead an expedition to South-America, especially Peru, its primary intention being to determine the precise lenght of a degree of longitude in the region of the equator. The expedition was granted permission by the Spanish king Philip V and was joined by two Spanish scientists and naval officers, Juan and Ulloa. Next to La Condamine, Bouguer, Godin and Joseph de Jussieu, were the other French academicians involved. The expedition took over a decade. For the return home, the leaders of the expedition decided to follow different routes in order to add to the value of their reports, La Condamine choosing the dangerous course of crossing Brazil by navigating the Amazon. His account of this journey was "of great importance, because for the first time the long course of the Amazon was traversed by a man of science capable of making astronomic observations, and determining longitudes." (Borba de Moraes). One of La Condamine's preoccupations was to verify the existence of the women known as 'Amazons''. The engraved map of the river accompanying the text was drawn by La Condamine, and is the first in which the latitudes were observed. It also shows by dotted lines Father Sebastian Fritz's inaccurate charting of the river, and is the first to feature the course of the Araguay. Appended to the Relation is an account of a riot in which the members of the expedition were involved during a bull-fight at Cuenca. At this event in the year 1739 the surgeon of the King, Semiergues, was lynched by a mob in a bull-fight arena after gallantly defending the hour of a girl.
Binding:
binding in calf-leather of the time
spine with title
Size:
ca. 19.8 x 13.2 x 3.3 cm
Illustration:
- 2 folded copper engravings
- exlibris mark in the inner front cover
Collation
- 2 blank leaves
- 1 title leaf
- 9 leaves foreword
- 190 leaves text (numbered pages 1-380)
- 2 blank leaves
Complete!
Condition:
- good condition
Binding
- rubbed and hit
- front hinge partly defective
Paper
- good paper quality
- some browning, hardly stains
- Please look at the pictures!
