Wright, Edward

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Certaine Errors in Navigation, Detected and Corrected ... With many additions that were not in the former edition as appeareth in the next pages. London: Felix Kingston, 1610
paper, ink, leather

4to (175 x 130 mm). Engraved title within a panel border comprising a world map on and navigation instruments, 1 folding woodcut plan ("the draught of the Meridians"), 2 metal engravings (one full-page), and numerous woodcut text diagrams; last six leaves with loss at lower outer corners affecting catchwords and a few other letters and numerals, title-page rubbed with very minor loss along fore-edge. Contemporary limp vellum, soiled.

Provenance

Pierre S. duPont III (Christie's New York, 8 October, 1991 lot 253).

Literature

STC 26020; Sabin 105573 ("World map on engraved title page is one of the first to mention Virginia.")

Catalogue Note

the Dupont copy of a key manual for English seamen. "With rare lucidity, Edward Wright set forth in this book the mathematical formulae and tables which would greatly increase the value of the Mercator projection. With these tables a navigator could plot a straight-line course and at the same time make the necessary corrections in distance along that line" (The World Encompassed).

The some nineteen additions to the work and the inclusion of a standard Spanish navigation manual of 1588, Zamorano's Compendio del Arte de Navegar, made this into an important manual that became a standard for English navigators.