Beschreibung:

Title: Africa: being an accurate description of the regions of Ægypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid, the land of Negroes, Guinee, Æthiopia, and the Abyssines, with all the adjacent islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantick, Southern, or Oriental Sea... Collected and translated from most authentick authors, and augmented with later observations; illustrated with notes, and adorn’d with peculiar maps, and proper sculptures... Author: Ogilby, John Place: London Publisher: Printed by Tho. Johnson for the author Date: 1670 Description: [16], 767, [1] pp. With 15 copper-engraved maps & plans (1 fold-out, 14 double-page); 39 copper-engraved plates (31 double-page, 1 of these folding out as well); engraved pictorial title-page; engraved portrait of Charles II; 46 engravings in the text; extra-illustrated with an engraved portrait of Ogiibly, inlaid to size and bound in following the half-title. 9 inserted printed tables. (folio) 16¼x10¼, period calf, rebacked in calf, spine tooled in gilt. First Edition. Magnicent copy of this important gathering of European knowledge of the African continent, with a striking array of illustrations engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar and others, and a significant series of maps. Cox notes that the work was "probably...in the main translated from Dapper... In the preface [Ogilby] gives an entertaining account of his own writings," which comprises one of the few sources of his life. The work was intended as Vol. I of his planned "English Atlas," as noted on the half-title, often lacking but present in this copy. The list of plates and maps at the rear has only 47 listed. There are 7 additional unlisted plates (as neccesary for copies to be considered complete), including that at p. 180, which is a duplicate of the plate at p.100 (Datura, Kassia and other plants) - the plate at p.180 is slightly short. The other unlisted plates are "Mulay Arsheid Zeriff, Prince of Taffeleta..." at p.164; and 5 untitled single-page plates, each with two images of natives, at pp. 348, 384, 394, 398, and 452. Additionally, there are the added engraved title and the portrait of Charles II, as well as the portrait of Ogilby from another work. A complete copy, with the extra illustration. Cox III, p.361; Wing O-163. Provenance: Society of Writers to the Signet (stamp on both covers). Old shelf label on front endpaper verso, small label of Grammercy Book Shop at foot of following flyleaf. Lot Amendments Condition: Light stain to title and a small hole above "Aethiopia" in the center of the page but affecting to letters, occasional light to moderate foxing, ovarall a fine copy. Item number: 202613