Voyage dans l'hémisphere austral et autour du monde ...: traduit de l'Anglois

Paris: Hôtel de Thou, 1778. Very Good. Six volumes octavo (20 cm) and atlas volume in quarto (27 cm). Text volumes bound in cat's paw calf; six-panel spines tooled in gilt, with red leather title labels lettered in gilt. Marbled endleaves. Minimal wear. Atlas volume bound separately in contemporary speckled calf with black leather title label. 65 copper-engraved plates including double-page folding "Carte de l'Hemisphere Austral," portraits, scenes, botanical representations, plans and other maps. Excellent condition throughout. References: Mitchell Library, p. 52; Sabin 16249 (4to ed.)

Attractive set of the French-language version of “Cook's account of his second expedition, “A Voyage towards the South Pole, and Round the World” (London, 1777). This astonishing journey (from 1772 to 1775) went around the globe as far south as possible to explore the existence (or not) of a postulated southern landmass. In the course of the voyage, Cook’s ships “Resolution” and “Adventure” crossed deeply into Antarctic waters, ultimately turned back by ice barriers. Zig-zagging through the South Pacific, Cook’s ships also visited Easter Island, the Marquesas, Tahiti, the Society Islands, Niue, the Tonga Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, Palmerston Island, South Sandwich Islands, and South Georgia, many of which Cook named in the process. This French edition of his report was published close on the heels of the English version in two distinct formats, a five-volume quarto and a six-volume octavo with a quarto atlas containing the extraordinary set of 66 engraved plates after William Hodges. The French translator, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Suard, incorporated into the text a great deal of material from the rival account of the voyage that Johann Reinhold Forster published (under guise of his son Georg) based on a draft of Cook’s own journal. (In English, Forster’s account was published separately.) A fine set.