William Dampier | A Collection of Voyages, 1729, 9 parts in 4 vols, contemporary calf

William Dampier

A collection of voyages. London, 1729

4 volumes, 8vo (196 x 122 mm.), additional title-page in vol.1, 63 (of 65?) engraved plates and maps by and after Herman Moll (some folding), contemporary calf, spines with raised bands in six compartments, red morocco labels to second and third compartments, spotting and browning, joints becoming weak, extremities rubbed

The collected edition, "considered the best scholar's edition. Dampier's accounts show him to have been a careful observer of everything affecting navigation and of the natural history of the lands he visited. Through his writings, Dampier made the profitable possibilities of the Pacific known" (Hill). 

PROVENANCE:

"Matthew Lewis, Esq.r", father of Matthew Gregory (a.k.a. "Monk") Lewis, armorial bookplate; Panshanger, Hertfordshire, seat of Earls Cowper, armorial bookplate and manuscript shelfmark to front pastedown ("S_D.5._")

LITERATURE:

Borba de Moraes pp. 243-44; Hill pp. 77-78; Sabin 18373