Lot n° 315
Estimation :
500 - 700
EUR
North - LA MARTINIÈRE (Pierre Martin de). Voyage des pais se - Lot 315
North - LA MARTINIÈRE (Pierre Martin de). Voyage des pais septentrionaux. Dans lequel se voide les mœurs, manière de vivre, & superstitions des Norweguiens, Lappons, Kiloppes, Borandiens, Syberiens, Samojedes, Zembliens, & Islandois, enrichi de plusieurs figures. Paris, Louis Vendosme, 1671.
In-12, grained basane, ornate spine (period binding). [8] ff. including engraved frontispiece, 201 pp.
Very rare first edition. Illustrated with an engraved title and 13 copper-engraved mid-page in-text figures (costumes, whale hunting, sledges, penguin, statue of the god Fetizo, Zemblien with his canoe, map, etc.).
A physician from Rouen, Pierre Martin de La Martinière (1634-1690) was the first Frenchman to publish an account of a voyage to Northern Europe. After visiting the coasts of Africa and Asia, he went to Copenhagen, from where he joined, as a marine surgeon, the commercial and scientific expedition sent by Frederick III in February 1653 to the boreal regions (Lapland, New Zealand, the Siberian coast and Iceland).
His account of the expedition is rich in first-rate information on the customs of the inhabitants, their diet, hunting, the "disease called Scurvy", the "boldness of the bears", copper mining, natural history (reindeer, bears, penguins, a chapter on the unicorn...). There are also passages on hunting and fishing.
Ex-libris J.M. (Sabin, 387; Frère II, 141.)
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