The Most Complete Collection of Voyages Obtainable - A Complete Library in Itself
Beautiful Uniformly Bound Set - In Contemporary Blue Boards
With the Key Map and Western Overland Account by Hunt and Stuart
It would be difficult to imagine a more complete collection of the world's great travels and voyages of discovery. The Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, likely the most comprehensive systematic effort to compile travels and voyages of discovery, is a vast collection of exploration reports from around the world, including a number of highly important accounts concerning the Pacific Northwest of America. The collection spans the entire globe, with emphasis on the Pacific, Africa, and narratives of discovery on the North American continent. The editors kept up with current events, incorporating new and often previously unpublished accounts. In an effort to balance out the collection and perhaps to provide historical context the editors also included a number of early discovery accounts, such as Marco Polo's overland travels to Asia.
The present set of 36 volumes consists of the entire output of the Nouvelles Annales under the direction of noted Danish geographer Conrad Malte Brun, director of the project from 1819 to 1826. The work's subtitle explains its greater purpose, as:
A collection of unpublished original relations, communicated by French and foreign travellers; new journeys, translated from all European languages; and historical memoirs on the origin, language, customs and arts of peoples, as well as on the production and trade of little or poorly known countries: accompanied by a bulletin announcing all the discoveries, research and undertakings which tend to accelerate the progress of the historical sciences, especially of geography.
According to Sabin the Annales continued through 1870, eventually comprising 208 volumes in six series with some modifications to the title. Offered here is one of the most extensive sets we have seen, and especially desirable for being uniformly bound in 19th century deep-blue French boards, with red leather spine labels.
Hunt and Stuart - First Detailed Publication of their Western Travels - with a Superlatively Important Map of the West.
Of all the great voyages found in these volumes, the outstanding exemplar is the first publication of the text and map relating to the overland adventures and travels in the Northwest by Wilson Price Hunt and Robert Stuart in 1811-1813. These two early western explorers set out to develop John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost at the mouth of the Columbia River and led the most important overland expeditions in the region immediately after Lewis and Clark. Herein is the primary relation of their journey spanning three years, beginning in New York, thence overland to Astoria and back to St. Louis, documenting the discovery of the South Pass and the establishment of the Oregon Trail. The Hunt portion of text was later published in English in The Overland Diary of Wilson Price Hunt, Oregon Book Society (1973). An English version of Stuart's account appeared in 1935, when The Discovery of the Oregon Trail, with a masterly foreword by Philip Ashton Rollins, was published. Tweney describes that book as second only to Lewis and Clark as an important source of overland travel and the history of the Pacific Northwest. Hunt's eastward and the Hunt-Stuart westward crossing made important in-roads into the Snake River valley, thus opening that territory to the fur trade.
Between the map and the narratives of the birth of the Oregon Trail, these volumes embrace a tremendous leap forward in opening the American West.
Wheat refers to the map as:
The first map of importance to appear in 1821... It was published in Nouvelle Annales des Voyages... and purports to show the routes of Wilson Price Hunt (westward) and Robert Stuart (eastward) a decade earlier. The map is well constructed, and has been praised as a remarkably accurate representation of their journeyings. It seems to have been largely based on the Lewis and Clark map of 1814, but in its new elements it was a notable performance... Lapie's rendition of the Snake and its tributaries was a notable advance over any map that had yet been constructed...The character of the information displayed is such that the map could not have been constructed from purely literary sources. Lapie must have had an original sketch map from Astor or Gallatin (Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to France) to work from. This is all the more remarkable since no map has yet been uncovered in the United States, and we are thus indebted to the Frenchman for a major contribution to our geography.
Wagner-Camp describes the context and background of the map:
In accordance with John Jacob Astor's plan for the establishment of an American fur trade in the Far West, two groups set out from New York for the mouth of the Columbia River: one group sailing in the ship Tonquin, numbering among its members Robert Stuart; and the other, headed by Wilson Price Hunt, proceeding overland via Saint Louis and the Missouri River to the same destination. The two parties joined at the new post Astoria in the early part of 1812; and in June of that year Stuart and Hunt returned to Saint Louis with a small party. Their arrival was noted in the contemporary press ... However detailed accounts did not appear in print until 1821 [herein:] Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, Tome X, pp. 31-88; Tome X, pp. 88-119; and Tome XII, pp. 21-113].
From the Hill Catalog of Pacific Voyages at the University of California, San Diego (describing the 1935 publication of Stuart's account):
[Stuart] was tapped by a major rival company [of his erstwhile employer, the North West Company] in the fur trade, John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, to become a partner and expedition leader. Astor wanted to establish a fortified trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River, and so in the fall of 1810 he sent one group of employees, including Stuart, by the sea route around the Horn to the Pacific to establish this post. He also sent another group westward overland, led by Wilson Price Hunt, to establish a route and scout sites for trading posts along the way ... Stuart and his party followed the route of Lewis and Clark out of Oregon, and then followed their colleague Hunt's trail into Idaho. Part way into Idaho, Stuart branched out in a new direction, following Indian trails into Wyoming, up South Pass, along the Sweetwater River, by the Red Buttes and into the upper canyon of the North Platte in Nebraska, before joining the fur-traders' highway along the Platte... This route, with only small variations, became the trail to the Pacific Northwest and California that bore the wagon tracks of so many emigrant trains in the 1840s and 1850s.
Volume 10:
Pages [5]-31: Voyage de l'Embouchure de la Columbia a Saint-Louis, sur le Mississipi, en 1812; Précédé d'un Voyage par mer de New-York à l'embouchure de la Columbia; de la relation de ce qui s'est passé au fort Astoria pendant plus d'un an (de 1811 à 1812), et d'un Voyage de Saint-Louis au fort Astoria; Traduits et extraits des journaux manuscrits tenus par les voyageurs, en anglois.
Pages 31-88: Voyage de M. Hunt et de ses compagnons de Saint-Louis à l'embouchure de la Columbia par une nouvelle route à travers les Rocky-Mountains.
Pages 88-119: Voyage de l'Embouchure de la Columbia à Saint-Louis, sur le Mississipi, par M. R. Stuart.
Volume 12:
Pages 21-113: Voyage de l'Embouchure de la Columbia à Saint-Louis, sur le Mississipi, par M. R. Stuart.
Volume 12 contains the important map by Lapie illustrating their explorations and the discovery of what would become the Oregon Trail:
Carte de la Partie Occidentale des États-Unis, Dressée pour servir à l'intelligence des découvertes des Américains dans cette partie et notamment pour celles de M.M. Hunt et Stuart, faites en 1811,12, et 13. 15 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches. Lapie's handsome engraved map shows the northwestern United States and most of the region north of San Francisco and west of the Mississippi.
Malte-Brun and the Annales des Voyages as a whole:
The Danish journalist and scientist Conrad Malte-Brun emigrated to France in 1799. Through his multiple ambitious publishing endeavors, including the present Nouvelles Annales des Voyages (which began life as the Annales de Voyages in 1807, with the new title Nouvelles Annales des Voyages first appearing in 1819), he intended to establish a solid foundation for what he envisioned as a distinct geographical science. His ideas on geography as a science are of interest to modern day historians of geography and cartography. The present extensive serial publication played a key role in Malte-Brun's vision for geography as a field of inquiry deserving of the respect enjoyed by the physical sciences. By presenting an ongoing collection of accounts of travel and exploration, well illustrated with fine maps, Malte-Brun emphasized the literary treatment of geographical travel accounts (with illustrative maps), with less focus on a systematic analysis of geography based on field work. This might have been seen as a stumbling block to his overall ambitions for geography's status as a scientific discipline. His other major publication, the Précis de la Geographie Universelle (1810, 6 volumes), was envisioned as an encyclopedic sum of all geographical knowledge.
In a comprehensive collection such as this, one is bound to encounter numerous accounts of note. Here follows a listing, by no means exhaustive, of other outstanding reports contained in the present set of the Nouvelles Annales.
The first French translation of any part of Lewis and Clark can be found in Volume 8 (1821), translated from the London 1815 or 1817 edition. This is the first French translation of any part of the Biddle-Allen text of the expedition. The text is concerned with the Shoshone, Flathead, and Columbia River Indians.
The bookstore of Gide Fils had an active publication program. It produced histories, natural histories, dictionaries, mysteries, and an extensive collection of exotic travel tales...The selection from Lewis and Clark's travels thus fit comfortably into the firm's inventory - The Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, page 159.
Humboldt and Bonpland in South America
Bernard O'Reily's Greenland and adjacent seas and Northwest Passage to Pacific Ocean in 1817, Vol. 1 (1819)
An account of southern Russian colonies by an unnamed visitor in 1818
John Ross's voyage to Baffin Bay aboard the Isabella and Alexander in search of the Northwest Passage (with a map), Vol. 2 (1819).
An extract of William Edward Parry's Polar Expedition (with a folding map). Vol. 7 (1820)
Recent Arctic explorations (with a folding map after the explorations of Maldonado, Admiral de Fonte, and Captain Bernarda), Vol. 11 (1821)
George William Evans' Geographical, Historical, and Topographical Description of Van Diemen's Land (with large folding map), Vol. 15 (1822), this French translation printed the same year as the first London edition.
Otto Kotzebue in the Pacific in 1816 by Choris, (with maps of the Rumanzoff Islands and the Radack Islands - including "Bigini" or the Bikini Atoll - now Marshall Islands), Vol. 13 (1822).
Rennel's account of the captivity of Alexander Scott by the Arabs in Africa
John Davy in Ceylon
Scoresby in Greenland
An extract from Daniel W. Harmon's account of travel to the Northwest
Upper Canada by John Howison
Jules Blosseville's Geographical Memoir of New Zealand (with a folding map), Vol. 29 (1826).
No other collection of voyages so comprehensively covers the history of mankind's exploration of the globe.
The scores of maps and plates do much to enhance the voluminous text.
A wonderful collection, uniformly bound, and a complete library in itself.
Rarity
A set with 20 volumes (1819-1831, and thus not as extensive as the 36 volume set we offer here) was listed in the Soliday Sale catalogue at $350 in the 1940s, a substantial sum in those days and a price which stands out in the sea of rare book listings - mostly in the sub-$50 range - in that catalog.
This 36 volume set is extensively illustrated with maps and plates, all printed on fine thick paper:
Vol. 1:
Brouillard. Arc lumineux. Glaces sous le 75o. 17 de latitude nord (Baie de Baffin) [plate showing view at Baffin Bay]
Carte du Voyage entrepris pour reconnaître les Sources du Gange, Dessinée et Gravée d'après l'original anglais, par Ambroise Tardieu.
Carte du Voyage dans l'Oundes, par G. Moorcroft ... par Ambroise Tardieu.
Vol. 2:
Vue de Kertch [plate]
Plan du Port et de la Ville de Kertch, anciennement Panticapée.
Carte de la Route et des Découvertes des Vaisseaux l'Isabelle et l'Alexandre dans le Détroit de Davis et la Baie de Baffin, dressée sous la direction du Capitaine Ross, Commandant de l'expédition entreprise en 1818 pour chercher le Passage du Nord-Ouest; et traduite de l'Original anglais par Ambroise Tardieu.
Vol. 3:
Carte du Pays de Camboge... d'après d'Ayot, et les recherches de Mr. Abel Rémusat par Ambroise Tardieu
Plan de la Plaine de Marathon.
Vol. 4:
Carte de l'Archipel de Jean Potocki par Jules Klaproth. 1820.
Vol. 5:
Carte de la Partie de la Côte Méridionale de l'Asie Mineure Ordinairement Appelée Caramanie, dresée d'aprés les Reconnaissances faites en 1811 et 1812. Par Mr. Beaufort.
Vol. 6:
Carte du Zanguebar ou Zindgibar d'après les Reconnoissances de Mr. Saulnier de Mondevit, les Notes de Mr. Charpentier de Cossigny, de Mr. Morice &c. Par. M-B..n. 1820.
Vol. 7:
Carte des Decouvertes du Capitaine Parry en 1819 et 1820, Publiée a Londres le 16 Novembre 1820, par le Bureau hydrographique de l'Amirauté el a Paris le 30 du même mois par l'Editeur des Annales des Voyages, rue St. Marc-Feydean, No. 20.
Carte des Régions Polaires Boréales
Vol. 8:
Plan des Fouilles de Pompeii vers la fin de 1817.
Plan du Temple souterrain d'Ibsamboul en Nubie.
Vol. 9:
Folding plate depicting the Toros de Guisando, a series of ancient sculptures in the province of Ávila, Spain.
Esquisse de la partie Occidentale du Sahara où l'on voit la route parcourue par Alexandre Scott depuis 1810 Jusqu'en 1816. Dressée par le Major Rennel.
Vol 10:
Coupe du Désert d'orient en occident.
Carte de la Route du Capitaine G. F. Lyon, à travers la Régence de Tripoli et le Royaume de Fezzan en 1818, 1819, et 1820.
Vol. 11:
Carte d'une Partie de L'Océan Arctique et de l'Amérique Septentrionale, pour expliquer d'après les relations de Maldonado, de l'Amiral de Fonte, du Capitaine Bernarda et les décourvertes récentes, la configuration de ces Contrées ainsi que les communications qu'elles présentent entre l'Océan Atlantique et le Grand Océan. Par le Chevr. Lapie Géographe. 1821.
Vol. 12:
Carte de la Partie Occidentale des États-Unis, Dressée pour servir à l'intelligence des découvertes des Américains dans cette partie et notamment pour celles de M.M. Hunt et Stuart, faites en 1811,12, et 13. Par le Chev. Lapie, Géographe. 1821.
Carte de l'Afrique depuis le Détroit de Gibraltar... par James MacQueen.
Vol. 13:
Carte du Detroit de Behring, sur la projection de Mercator.
Plan du Groupe des Iles Rumanzoff, dont le centre se trouve au 9o 26' 47" de Lat. N., et à 192o 17' 28" de Long. 0 de Paris. La déclinaison de l'Aiguille est de no. 38' 1/2 à l'Est.
Labyrinth de rochers d'Adersbach, en Bohèrne. Lithograph plate.
Carte des Iles Radack et Ralik.
Vol. 14:
Carte de l'Ile Banca par M. H. Court.
Carte de l'Ile Billiton ... par M. H. Court.
Vol. 15:
Carte de la Contrée où s'est donné la Bataille d'Arminius contre Varus. Par M. W. Tappe.
Carte de la Terre de Van Diemen dresée par G. W. Evans, arpenteur general d'Hobart-Town. 1822.
Vol. 16:
Carte de d'Ile de Ceylan.
Vol. 17:
Plan d'un Temple souterrain, situé près de Midia.
Coupe du vestibule et de la piscine, du coté du Temple.
Coupe prise sur la longueur du Temple ...
Plan du Promontoire et des Ports de Midia.
Carte du Shetland Méridional.
Vol. 18:
Carte d'une Partie Nord-est de L'Afrique. Dressée pour servir à l'intelligence des Voyages de Della-Cella, Lyon et Hornemann; par le Chr. Lapie, Géographe. 1823.
Inscription sur la Ligne.
Vol. 19:
Esquisse de la Vallée du Setledje dans les Monts Himalaya; avec la Route du Lieut. Gérard. 1818.
Monumens d'un peuple inconnu trouves sur les bords de l'Ohio.
Vol. 20:
Vue du Temple du Mont Okhê du côté de l'Ouest.
Plan et coupe du Temple du Mont Okhê.
Carte de la Côe du Brésel, de Rio de Janeiro à l'Ilha Grande.
Vol. 21:
Carte des Deux Oasis, visitées en 1819, par Sir Archibald Edmonstone, Bart.
Vol. 22:
Carte de la Grande Ile Lieou-Khieou, dessée d'áprès les observations du Ct. B. Hall, et d'áprès les relations et Cartes Japanaises et Chinoises, par Mr. J. Klaproth. 1824.
Vol. 23:
Carte des Découvertes du Capitaine Parry, où l'on voit aussi celles du Cap. Franklin.
Carte de la Côte et de l'Intérieur du Congo, D'Angola et de Benguela.
Vol. 24:
Palais des Khans de Crimée.
Le Rockbridge.
Mines de Wieliczka.
Cascade de Wilberforce.
Source de la Tamise.
Carte du Kordoufan et des pays adjacents, d'áprès les observations de Mehemet Beg, redigée par M. Edouard Rüppell, en 1824.
Vol. 25:
Turquie d'Europe, divisée par Peuples [with handcolored lines under names of peoples]
Carte de l'Ile de Samos.
Vol. 26:
Vue des Pyrénées
Vue du Pont de Véja
Vol. 27:
Naturel de Rotouma [Plate depicting an inhabitant of island of Rotouma]
Carte représentant les galeries souterraines de I'isle de Melos
Carte du lac Baikal
Vol. 28:
Ancienne Fortification sur la Rive Orientale du Petit Miami. Comté de Warren. Ohio [on same sheet:] Anciens Ouvrages à Portsmouth, Ohio.
Anciens Ouvrages sur les Bords du Paint Creek.
Anciens Ouvrages à Marietta, Ohio [pn same sheet:] Ancien Fort et Tertre en Pierre, Dans le Comté de Pérry. Ohio.
Anciens Ouvrages à Circleville, Ohio.
Anciens Ouvrages de Newark.
Carte du Lac de Genève et de ses environs.
Vol. 29:
Carte de la Côte Méridionale, de I'Ile de Tawai-Poénammou. Nouvelle Zélande par J. de Blosseville.
Carte de I'lle d'Ikanamauwi. Nouvelle Zélande par J. de Blosseville.
Vol. 30:
Paysau de Majorque.
Paysanne de Majorque.
Paysan de'Iviza.
Paysanne d'Iviza.
Carte Générale de l'Australie, d'àprés le Capitne. King.
Lacks plate of Château de Darmouth
Vol. 31:
Carte des decouvertes faites dans le centre de l'Afrique, par le Dr. Oudeney, le Mar. Denhem et le Captne. Clapperton.
Negre de Mandara, Dame de Loggoun, and Dame de Maffatai.
Carte du Kordoufan et des Pays adjacents, rédigée par Mr. Edouard Ruppell en 1825.
Vol. 32:
Intérieur d'un Monument Antique, qui se trouve en Maravie.
Lacks Vue de Sydney.
Vol. 33:
Carte des Colonies établies dans la partie sud-ouest de la Russie. [Detailed map, with outline handcoloring, of the Crimea and northern part of the Black Sea and Sea of Azof, locating colonial settlement in the region. The map is divided by Governments as created by the Imperial Russian Government in 1802. The settlements showing include: Mennonite Colony, German Colony, Bulgarian-Greek Colony and Serbian Colony].
Gitanos. Folding lithograph plate.
Vol. 34:
No plates or maps issued.
Vol. 35:
Cascade de la Riviere du Prince Régent d'après un dessin du Capitaine King.
Vol. 36:
Lacks pages [129]-144 and map: Carte de l'île de Haï-nan, dressée par M. Klaproth.
Ref. to Lewis and Clark: The Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 5a.3.
Ref. to Lapie, vol 11: Brietfuss, "Early Maps of North-Eastern Asia and of the Land around the North Pacific" in Imago Mundi, Vol 3, pp 87-99.
The set as a whole: Sabin 56093. Soliday Sale, pt. 2 (20 volumes set, 1819-1831, styled first and second series): 1231a.
Conrad Malte-Brun (born Malthe Conrad Bruun) was a notable Dano-French geographer and journalist, best known for coining the terms "Oceania" and "Indo-China." His contributions to geography and his political activism left a lasting impact on both fields.
Born in Thisted, Denmark, to an administrator of Danish crown lands, Malte-Brun was initially destined for a career as a pastor. However, he chose to attend the University of Copenhagen, where he became a fervent supporter of the French Revolution and an advocate for freedom of the press. His activism and outspoken criticism of the Danish government, particularly through his pamphlet "Catechism of the Aristocrats" (1795), led to his indictment under the harsh censorship laws instituted by Crown Prince Frederick in September 1799. Facing inevitable exile, Malte-Brun fled Denmark, eventually settling in France in 1799.
In France, Malte-Brun embarked on a prolific career in geography. Collaborating with Edme Mentelle, a professor at the École Normale, he co-authored Géographie mathématique, physique et politique de toutes les parties du monde (6 vols., 1803-1812). His contributions to geography were vast, including his promotion of the term "Manchuria" in an 1804 map of China.
Despite his initial opposition to the consular government, Malte-Brun later became a zealous imperialist under Napoleon and an ardent monarchist after Napoleon's fall. He published Traité de la légitimité considérée comme base du droit public de l'Europe chrétienne (1824), reflecting his political evolution.
Malte-Brun devoted much of his career to geographical studies. He founded Les Annales des Voyages (1807) and Les Annales des Voyages, de la Géographie et de l'Histoire (1819), journals that promoted empirical research in geography. He gained prominence with his treatise Tableau de la Pologne (1807) and served as the first general secretary of the Société de Géographie from 1822 to 1824.
His suggestion to import camels into Australia marked a unique contribution to the continent's agricultural practices. Malte-Brun also made significant contributions to Albanology, mentioning an original Albanian alphabet in his Universal Geography (1826), which spurred further research by scholars like Johann Georg von Hahn and Leopold Geitler.
Conrad Malte-Brun died in Paris in 1826 while drafting the final version of his magnum opus, Précis de Géographie Universelle ou Description de toutes les parties du monde. The work was completed posthumously, with the last two volumes authored by Huot. Malte-Brun's legacy endures, with streets named after him in both Paris and his birthplace, Thisted. His second son, Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun, continued his father's work in geography, ensuring that the Malte-Brun name remained influential in the field.
Wilson Price Hunt was an early explorer of the Oregon Country and the Pacific Northwest of North America. He was employed by John Jacob Astor as an agent in the fur trade. Hunt was placed in charge of an important overland exploring expedition to establish a fur trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River.
Robert Stuart was a fur trader remembered for his involvement with the first European-American expedition to cross South Pass on an overland expedition from Fort Asotoria to Saint Louis in 1811. He was recruited by John Jacob Astor to develop the Pacific Fur Company.