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A Beautiful Example of the First Edition - The Elusive First Issue (Morley's Entry no. 1)

With a Treasure Trove of Maps and Botanical Plates

"One of the Most Important Works on the History of Canada and of the French Establishments in Louisiana" - Lande

"The Pre-Eminent Authority on the French Period in the West" - Howes

First edition, first issue, in three substantial quarto volumes of this essential classic of Canadian and Mississippi Valley history, by the great Jesuit traveler and historian, Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix. A major early sourcebook of vital information about North America, especially French Louisiana and Canada, with 28 mostly folding engraved maps, including several important maps of North America, Louisiana, the Midwest and the Great Lakes. Plus, a suite of detailed engraved botanical plates of American and Canadian plants. The present set is the first issue of the first edition, being entry no. 1 in William F. E. Morley's bibliographical study of the various editions of Charlevoix's Histoire de la Nouvelle France, arranged in "chronological array."

The first two volumes of Charlevoix's book contain an excellent early history of Canada through the year 1736, including references to proposed settlements at Detroit by both the English and the French.

The third volume is full of interest: after a discourse on the origin of the American Indian there follows a journal in the form 36 letters which relate crucial early descriptions of the Mississippi Valley:

These letters relate... Charlevoix's canoe voyage from Fort Pontchartrain, the present site of Detroit, north to Michilimackinac, a side trip to Green Bay, and then south from Michilimackinac along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to Fort St. Joseph on the river of the same name, near the present site of Niles. After a sojourn here, Charlevoix attempted to reach the Illinois River by crossing the southern end of Lake Michigan to Chicagou and thence via the portage from Chicago River, but rough weather forced him back to Fort St. Joseph, whence he reached the Illinois via the St. Joseph-Kankakee portage, and continued his voyage to the mouth of the Mississippi.... His history of the French in America is the best of those written by the earlier explorers... - Greenly.

The maps, mostly by Nicholas Bellin, the maps listed in bold are especially notable:

• Carte de l'Amerique Septentrionale. 1743.
• Carte de l'Accadie
• Carte des Costes de la Floride Francoise
• Carte de la Riviere de Richelieu et du Lac Champlain
• Carte de l'Isle de Montreal et de ses Environs
• Carte de l'Isle de Terre-Neuve
• Carte des Bayes Rades et Port de Plaisance
• Carte de la Partie Orientale de la Nouvelle France
• Carte de la Baye de Hudson
• Carte du Fonds de la Baye de Hudson
• Carte de la Louisiana
• Plan du Port Royal
• Plan du Port de la Haive
• Plan de la Baye de Chedabouctou
• Carte de l'Isle Royale
• Plan du Port Ville de Louisbourg
• Plan du Port Dauphin
• Plan de la Nouvelle-Orleans
• Carte de l'Ocean Occidental et Partie de l'Amerique Septentionale
• Carte du Cours de la Riviere du Saguenay appellee par les Sauvages Pitchitaouichetz
• Carte de l'Isle d'Orleans et du Passage de la Traverse dans le Fleuve St. Laurent
• Plan du Bassin de Quebec
• Plan de la Ville de Quebec
• Carte des Lacs Du Canada [Great Lakes]
• Carte du Detroit
• Carte des Embouchures du Mississipi
• Partie de la Coste de La Louisiane et de la Floride depuis le Mississipi ...
• Plan de la Baye de Pansacola

In addition to the great cartographical and historical value of this work, Charlevoix's Description des Plantes Principales de l'Amerique Septentrionale is of inestimable value to the early natural history of North America. Ninety-six plants, mostly native flora of Canada, but also a few herbs from the Mississippi Valley, are carefully described and illustrated with fine engravings. Some of these plants were used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes. Interestingly, the present example includes an early French manuscript text tipped to the inside cover of vol. 1 containing a traditional medicinal purgative, which translates as follows: 

Two gros (drachms) of senna leaves
Two gros of Epsom salt
One gros of rhubarb
A pinch of anise: boil
all these ingredients in five ounces of a chicory decoction until it is reduced by half;
strain the liquid through a cloth:
then dissolve two and a half ounces of manna (a natural laxative); strain the liquid a second time
to make a medicine
that should be taken in one dose, ensuring
to rinse the mouth beforehand with a large glass of pure water.

This note outlines a medicinal recipe, likely intended as a purgative or laxative, typical of remedies common in 18th-century medical practice. The use of ingredients like senna, rhubarb, and Epsom salts indicates the recipe's purpose as a digestive aid.

Morley makes a few interesting points about the value and influence of Charlevoix's work:

Without Charlevoix, it has been said, the 150 years of French rule in America would have passed without a continuous contemporary history of the period... the American chronology and bibliography and the botanical treatise he included are still of interest and value.

It is interesting to note how a French Jesuit, after completing a secret and official mission for his government, came to write, and was permitted to publish, a detailed account of New France delayed in completion until just the time when it could have been of most service to the enemies of his order and his country. There can be little question that Charlevoix's Histoire (including the Journal) was a factor contributing to the downfall of New France... - Morley, page 22.

This splendid work comprises an account of French colonization in Texas - Raines.

The "Rolin Fils" First Issue

Five issues of the 3-volume quarto first edition have been identified. Most authorities are silent as to priority among the issues. William F. E. Morley lists the present issue, with imprint name of Rolin Fils, as entry no. 1 his chronologically arranged bibliography of the editions of the Charlevoix's Histoire. While he conceded that the various issues "may well have been simultaneous," Morley nonetheless decided to list the Rolin (or Rollin) issue as the first, possibly based on contemporary periodical announcements.