PURCHAS. PURCHAS HIS PILGRIMS, 1625, 5 VOLUMES

FIRST EDITION OF THE PILGRIMES, fourth edition of the Pilgrimage, 5 volumes, folio (337 x 215mm.), Roman, italic, Greek and Hebrew letter, illustrations: volume 1: engraved additional title (dated 1625), double-page engraved map of China (at pp.436-437, misbound from vol.5), 13 maps in text (including Hondius's map of the Christian world on p.115, repeated on p.65), woodcut illustrations; volume 2: 24 engraved maps in text, one woodcut and 6 engraved illustrations; volume 3: engraved double-page map of China (pp.400-401), double-page plate incorporating a map of Greenland (pp.472-473), double-page map of North America (pp.852-853), 19 maps in text, numerous illustrations of Mexican paintings (pp.1067-1117); volume 4: folding engraved map of Virginia by J. Smith (pp.1692-1693), double-page map of New France [etc.] (pp.1872-1873), 2 maps in text; volume 5: double page engraved map of the Empire of the great Mogoll by R. Elstracke (pp.578-579, misbound from vol.1), 23 engraved maps and one illustration in text, uniformly bound in nineteenth-century polished calf gilt, gilt edges, without integral blank leaves, vol.2 title laid down, map of New France with old repair on verso to hole (outside engraved area), occasional light spotting, neatly rebacked retaining original spines, very slightly rubbed

Edgar Atheling Drummond (1825-1893), armorial bookplate

ESTC 20509 & 20508; Sabin 66682-66686; Church 401A (engraved title dated 1624); Borba de Moraes, pp.692-693; Hill, p.243

Condition is described in the main body of the catalogue, 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."

ONE OF THE GREATEST OF ENGLISH TRAVEL BOOKS. It is a continuation and enlargement of Hakluyt's The Principal Navigations, which came into the hands of Samuel Purchas (c. 1577-1626) in about 1620. The work took more than three years to print, and was the largest book published on an English press to that time.Purchas edited oral accounts and manuscripts, translated texts in classical and foreign languages, and reprinted previously published works. His only original contributions came in the form of various editorials scattered through the volumes on, among other things, Solomon's voyage to Ophir, Pope Alexander's bulls of donation of 1493, the "iniquitie" of papal power, the history of Europe, and "Virginia's Verger," an ideological justification for English settlement in Virginia in the wake of the Powhatan uprising of 1622 ('Pilgrimes,' 4.1809-26). The map of Virginia is present and in unusually good condition. "At the death of Hakluyt there was left a large collection of voyages in manuscript which came into the hands of Purchas, who added to them many more voyages and travels... Purchas followed the general plan of Hakluyt, but he frequently put the accounts into his own words... The main divisions of the work fall into two parts: the first covering the world known to Ptolemy, the second coming down to Purchas' own day. This fine collection includes the accounts of Cortés and Pizarro, Drake, Cavendish, John and Richard Hawkins, Queirós, Magellan, van Noort, Spilbergen, and Barents, as well as the categories of Portuguese voyages to the East Indies, Jesuit voyages to China and Japan, East India Company voyages, and the expeditions of the Muscovy Company. The fifth volume of this set of the Pilgrimes is in reality the fourth and best edition of the Pilgrimage" (Hill).