LANGSDORFF, Georg Heinrich von - Lot 85

LANGSDORFF, Georg Heinrich von Voyages and Travels in Various Parts of the World, During the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, and 1807. London, printed for Henry Colburn, 1813-1814. 2 volumes in-4 (263 x 204 mm) of XXI, 362 pp. 3 ff.n.ch., 15 engraved plates (including the frontispiece portrait) including one folding for volume I; 4 ff.n.ch., 3 pp. 3 ff.n.ch. of index, 6 engraved plates (including the frontispiece) including a folding map for volume II. Raspberry calf, large gilt border, smooth spine with red morocco title and greef, red edges (period binding). Hill, 969; O'Reilly, 735. First edition of the English translation, published one year after the German original. The work is full of ethnographic information, notably on tattoos and music (2 plates). The end of the second volume is occupied by a vocabulary of the island Nouka-Hiva. "Dr. Langsdorff, 1774-1862, German physician, disciple of Blumenbach, participated as a naturalist, aboard the Nadirjeda, from 1803 to 1806, in the circumnavigation of Krusenstern. His account, alert and lively, usefully completes the relations of Krusenstern and Lisiansky. The first volume is dedicated to Alexander I, the second to Krusenstern. Langsdorff, with the Nadiejeda, passed & Nuku-Hiva, (Marquesas Islands), in Taiohae Bay, from May 6 to 17, 1804. Table of the positions of the different islands of the Marquesas. Customs and habits of the natives: anthropology, tattoos, clothing, religious and social organization, canoes, The documentation was facilitated by the presence in the island of the two European deserters, Roberts and Cabri that Langsdorff named Jean-Baptiste. At the departure towards the Sandwich Islands, Cabri is taken along by Krusenstern. Vocabulary of the island of Nouka-Hiva, 400 words collected by Langsdorf" (O'Reilly). A few browned quires, traces of stamps removed on titles; spine and corners skillfully restored.