CHURCHILL'S
COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS

"A very valuable collection,
both for its range and for the fact that it gives the original accounts."

[CHURCHILL, AWNSHAM and JOHN, comps.] A COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, Some now first Printed from Original Manuscripts. Others Translated out of Foreign Languages, and now first Publish'd in English . . . In Four Volumes . . . . London: Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill, 1704. Four volumes. Folio. Contemporary paneled calf, stamped in blind. c, [iv], 813, [xii] pages; [vi], 838 [pp. 157-180 omitted as usual, and apparently not published], [xii] pages; [x], 901, [xvii] pages; [vi], 848, [xii] pages. Text in double-column format. Two frontispieces, two engraved titles, seventy-eight engraved plates (five double page, forty-eight folding), twenty-three folding maps and plans, numerous illustrations in the text. Expertly rebacked, preserving most of the original spines, corners bumped and showing, some wear to covers, to preliminaries in Vol. I and to head of spine on Vol. IV, various minor paper flaws throughout (most not affecting text or images). A very good set of a rare and important early collection of first-hand travel accounts.

FIRST EDITION, complete as originally issued in four volumes. After the death of Awnsham Churchill (d. 1728), the set was reprinted in 1732 with two volumes added, and again in 1744 with two more volumes added by Thomas Osborne.

The brothers Awnsham and John Churchill entered the London book trade together in the late 17th-century, following Awnsham's apprenticeship to another bookseller. One of their earlier projects, compilation and publication of A Collection of Voyages and Travels, contributed greatly to their reputation and it remains the work most closely associated with their names. By the end of his career, Awnsham had become "'stationer to the king' and the leading bookseller of the day" (DNB), acquiring property, fortune and notable connections in the process. The latter included the English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704), who died the same year that A Collection of Voyages and Travels was first published. The essay "An Introductory Discourse, Containing The whole History of Navigation from its Original to this time" in Volume I is reputed to have been written by Locke. Although its authorship has not been corroborated, "Locke had much to do with getting together the materials of the collection, which is likely to have been produced at his instigation. Locke was upon friendly terms with Awnsham Churchill for many years, and left him a small legacy" (Id.).

Unlike other contemporary collections of travels and voyages which were heavily edited and re-written by their compilers - such as Harris' Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca (1705) and Astley's New General Collection of Voyages and Travels (1745-47) - Churchill's Collection of Voyages and Travels preserves the unadulterated first-hand accounts; "In all which we shall not presume to abridge the Originals, but fairly and candidly deliver whatever our Authors have thought fit to be inserted in their several Pieces" (Vol. I, p. ii). The "several Pieces" include Navarette's "Account of the Empire of China," Nieuhoff's "Voyages and Travels, Into Brasil and the East-Indies," "The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith, Into Europe, Asia, Africa, and America," "The Life of Christopher Columbus" by his son Ferdinand, Baldeus' "True and Exact Description of . . . Malabar and Coromandel," and works which are now virtually unobtainable as separate first editions. "This is a very valuable collection, both for its range and for the fact that it gives the original accounts. It well lives up to the claims made for it by its editors" (Cox). Cox I, p. 10. Sabin 13015. BT000099.

Provenance: Bookplates of George Dawson Coleman (1825-1878), the 19th-century Pennsylvania iron manufacturer, banker and legislator.

$11,000

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