Beschreibung:

COOK, Captain JAMES. First Voyage .] PARKINSON, SYDNEY. A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in his Majesty's Ship, the Endeavour. Faithfully transcribed from the Papers of the late Sydney Parkinson Draughtsman to Joseph Banks...with Dr. Solander. London: for Stanfield Parkinson, the Editor, 1773. 4to, 339 x 270 mm. (13 5/16 x 10 5/8 in.), contemporary calf, rebacked with the old spine and red morocco label laid down, upper joint split, corners repaired, modern brown quarter morocco slipcase by H.C. Fehr, title slightly spotted, plates offset to text. FIRST EDITION, LARGE PAPER, engraved portrait frontispiece by J. Newton, 27 engraved plates by Chambers, Darling, Godfrey, Mazell and Newton. Sydney Parkinson (1745?-1771) was engaged by Sir Joseph Banks as natural history draughtsman for the voyage. He did not survive the journey, dying of dysentry near the Cape of Good Hope. By the terms of his will, his brother Stanfield claimed all of his drawings and proceeded to make preparations for a rival publication to Hawkesworth's authorised account of the voyage. Hawkesworth succeeded in court by restraining the Parkinson publication until after his own and he further excluded mention of Parkinson in his account. Sabin 58787; BCJC 712; Hill, p. 224 ("He made numerous drawings of botanical and other subjects... Banks spoke highly of his 'unbounded industry' in making for him a much larger collection of drawings than he anticipated. His observations, too, were valuable, and the vocabularies of South Sea languages...are of great interest.")