Avity, Pierre d'

Description Generale de L'Afrique Seconde Partie du Monde. [Bound with his:] Description Generale de L'Amerique, Troisieme Partie du Monde. Paris: chez Laurent Cottereau, 1643



2 volumes bound in one, folio (13¾ x 8⅝ in.; 349 x 218 mm). Title pages printed in red and black with engraved allegorical vignette in each, engraved folding map in each volume by Petrus Bertius dated 1640, decorative woodcut initials; lightly browned throughout, rusthole in fore-margin of 1:1, occasional small dampstains in upper margin, occasional marginal spotting, short marginal tear in each map mended. Eighteenth-century mottled calf, spine richly gilt, gold-stamped leather title label on spine, red sprinkled edges; front hinge skilfully mended, a few scuffmarks on each cover colored to blend, edges rubbed, other small mends.

Alden-Landis 643/4; Borba de Moraes I:53

Second edition of each, enlarged by François Ranchin. Originally printed in 1637 by Claude Sonnius, and based on d'Avity's work Les Etats, Empires et Principautes  du Monde (1619), these volumes form the second and third part of Le Monde, ou la Description générale de ses quatre parties (Paris: Cottereau, 1643).

D'Avity (1573-1635), after studying classics and law, served in the infantry in the Netherlands and in Italy. Upon his return to Paris, he followed a literary career, publishing poems, letters, and songs in Latin and French, including a translation of Ovid. The first part of his primary geographical work appeared in 1613 (an English translation of which appeared in 1615), and he spent the rest of his life bringing out new and improved editions, a process which continued long after him.