Search Results: Authors starting with F from Bruce Marshall Rare Books

FIRST EDITION, From Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. For the Year MDCCCVI. Part II, pp. [239]-266, unbound, 4to, 1806Scarce first printing of the important work relating Flinders' observations on the H.M.S. Investigator, when charting the coast of Australia. Written while imprisoned in Mauritius, it is possibly the first time "Australia" appears in print. Flinders popularised the name Australia and pushed for the name to be formally adopted as early as 1804. Formally known as Terra Australis, he mentions in a footnote "Had I permitted myself any innovation on the original term, it would have been to convert it to Australia; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth."Mathew Flinders (1774-1814) was a naval officer and hydrographer who charted much of the Australian coast. He first sailed to Australia in 1795, where he explored the southeast coast and circumnavigated the island of Tasmania. In 1801 he returned… Read More