Ogilby, John.

First edition, folio (408 x 255mm.), half-title ("English Atlas, tome the first"), printed title in red and black, engraved additional pictorial title, folding general map, 42 double-page maps and plates (of 43?), 7 single-page plates (loosely inserted from a smaller copy), and illustrations in text, one extra double-page plate after Hollar with letterpress below, 7 leaves unsigned letterpress tables at beginning (and a further 7 loosely inserted from another copy, 5 of which are duplicates), plate list from another copy loosely inserted at end, nineteenth-century calf gilt with Botfield arms on sides (see illustration to lot 205 on p.105 for comparable binding), lacking possibly 1 map, some plates and text supplied from another copy (as detailed above), last leaf backed (obscuring plate list), upper joint splitting

Africa was the first volume of Ogilby's planned 'English Atlas' series, as indicated by the often wanting half-title (present in this copy). The book is the most authentic and comprehensive work on Africa in English published in the seventeenth century, of particular interest for the accounts of the natives in southern Africa. The preface (dated April 28, 1670) contains Ogilby's only autobiography (beginning in 1650).