Torfaeus, Thormodus | First edition of an extensive work by the Royal Historian of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway

Torfaeus, Thormodus

Gronlandia antiqua, seu Veteris Gronlandiæ Descriptio, ubi Cœli marisqve natura, terræ, locorum & villarum situs, animalium terrestrium aquatiliumque varia genera, Gentis origo & incrementa, status Politicus & Ecclesiasticus, gesta memorabilia & vicissitudines, ex Antiquis memoriis, præcipuè Islandicis, qvâ fieri potuit industriâ collecta exponuntur, Authore Thormodo Torfæo, Rerum Norvegicarum Historiographo Regio. Havniæ [Copenhagen]: Ex Typographéo Regiæ Majest. & Universts., Impensis Authoris, [1706]

Small 8vo (155 x 92 mm). Woodcut head- and tailpieces, 5 folding engraved map, 16 folded tables; some scattered foxing, worming to gutter of few leaves, one or two closed tears to inner margin of folding maps with edges a little creased. Modern brown calf, gilt red morocco letteringpiece to spine, top stained black, other edges speckled red.

First edition. Thormodus Torfæus was an Icelandic historian, who was educated at the University of Copenhagen, and lived and worked for most of his life in Kopervik, Karmøy, Norway. Torfæus was appointed Royal Antiquary of Iceland (1667), and Royal Historian of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway (1682). 

REFERENCES:

Sabin 96192; cf. Arctic Bibliography 17897