Lot 50

Tapp, John.

Estimate

12,000 - 18,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

The Seamans kalender, or An Ephemerides of the Sun, Moone, and certaine of the most notable fixed Starres. Together with many most needfull and necessary matters, to the behoofe and furtherance principally of Marriners and Seamen: but generally profitable to all Travailers, or such as delight in the Mathematicall studies. The tables being for the most part calculated from the yeare 1601, to the yeare 1624. London: Printed by E. Allde for John Tapp, 1602

First edition, small 4to (175 x 128mm.), woodcut vignette of a ship on title, 2 woodcuts in text, nineteenth-century sheep, [STC 23679; Taylor, 95], one woodcut slightly cropped, some light browning, final two leaves of tables shaved at head, slightly rubbed

Provenance

Richard Mylne? (early inscriptions on I2v-I3r); Boies Penrose (bookplate), his sale in these rooms, Part 2, 9 November 1971, lot 243 (illustrated); Frank Streeter (bookplate), his sale, Christie's New York, Part 2, 16-17 April, 2007, lot 491

Condition

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

The very rare first edition of this highly important seaman's manual. Only 5 copies are recorded in ESTC (British Library (2), Cambridge University, St Paul's Cathedral and Yale).

Tapp states that "Being many times conversant with seamen and mariners whereby I perceived that they... chiefly desired: at my best leysure I made a collection of such tables and rules as I thought fittest for their purposes and being instantly urged by divers to publish them... I resolved to hazard my papers to the Presse".

"In 1602 he made his most original contribution to the art of navigation as he compiled and published the first edition of the nautical almanac for which he is best known, The Seaman's Kalendar. The book proved a great success and was frequently brought up to date, with a new edition appearing every three years; by 1615 it was into a fifth edition and had been enlarged. Captain John Smith commended it highly in his Sea Grammar, while the book influenced Edward Gunter, the mathematician" (D.W. Waters, The Art of Navigation in England in Elizabethan and Early Stuart Times, New Haven, 1958, p.239).