![PURCHAS, SAMUEL Purchas his Pilgrimes. In five bookes. [with:] Purchase his Pilgrimage.](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/842/1506842.jpg?itok=8lh577T8)
Lot Details
Lot 103
PURCHAS, SAMUEL Purchas his Pilgrimes. In five bookes. [with:] Purchase his Pilgrimage.
London: William Stansby for Henrie Featherstone, 1625-26. First edition of the Pilgrimes and the fourth edition (as usual) of the Pilgrimage, second issue (with the dedication to King Charles I). Together five volumes. Full dark blue morocco by W. Pratt, the covers with central gilt arabesques, the spines lettered in gilt with raised bands, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. 13 x 8 1/4 inches (33 x 20 cm). Pagination: Volume I: [ii], [xxxiv], 1-186, [ii blank], [viii], 1-748, [xxiv] pp.; Volume II: [iv], 749-1860, [xl] pp.; Volume III: [xxvi], 1-1140, [lxviii] pp.; Volume IV: [vi], 1141-[1974], [xl] pp.; Volume V: [xl], 1-1048, [xxxvi] pp. The set complete with half-title and 7 folding or double-page maps, listed here by volume: Volume I with the engraved title in the second state dated 1625 (with the altered title Hakluytus Posthumus); all the noted pagination errors; the blank at R4; the first issue of pages 65 and 115 with "Hondius his Map of the Christian World" repeated; the headline of p. 704 (4M4v) reading "Hollanders lying deuices, to disgrace the English"; the full-sheet engraved map of East India inserted between 4B2 and 3; numerous other engraved maps in the text along with woodcut diagrams, illustrations, and exotic alphabets. Volume II with numerous engraved maps and illustrations in text, woodcut illustration of a zebra, woodcut printer's device on colophon leaf. Volume III with 3 full-sheet engraved maps of China, Greenland with whaling vignettes, and North America, numerous engraved maps in the text, woodcut facsimiles of Mexican codices. Volume IV with 2 full-sheet engraved maps being Smith's Virginia (in Burden's 10th state), and the map of New England and Canada. Volume V, the Pilgrimage, with full-sheet engraved map of China, numerous engraved maps and one engraved illustration in the text. The engraved title and several other leaves remargined or with marginal repair, the map of Virginia laid to linen, with some spotting and with the extremities of the image provided in facsimile, the map of Canada reguarded and with a few stray stains, faint ink signatures dated 1665 to the upper margin of three title pages, bound without blanks (excepting the blank in volume I), some light rubbing to extremities and joints.
At the time of the publishing of his Pilgrimes, Samuel Purchas (1577-1626) was chaplain to Archbishop George Abbot and rector of St. Martin, Ludgate, London. Having come into possession of unpublished manuscripts by Richard Hakluyt, author of The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589), Purchas added his own researches to Hakluyt's reports and in 1625 published his Pilgrimes with Hakluytus Posthumus printed at the head of the engraved title. This massive four volume work is approximately 2000 leaves and four million words. As a supplement to the Pilgrimes, Purchas added a fifth volume, a new edition of Purchas, his Pilgrimage, adding nearly a million words to the overall work. Needless to say, Purchas' work was one of the most ambitious printing efforts of the early 17th century.
The Pilgrimes collects the travels and voyages of England's sailors, fisherman and explorers from ancient times to the colonization of America in the early 17th century. While not divided so clearly, volume I explores ancient kings and records stories of circumnavigation around the African coast to the East Indies, China, and Japan. Volume II is dedicated to Africa, Palestine, Persia, and Arabia. Volume III provides history of the North-East and North-West passages and summaries of travels to Tartary, Russia, and China. Volume IV deals with America and the West Indies, and offers John Smith's rare map of Virginia along with a map of New England & Canada. Volume V, the updated Pilgrimage, is a separate work offering Purchas' insights to the spread of Christianity via his Anglican worldview. Of pairing the two works, Purchas wrote: "These brethren, holding much resemblance in name, nature and feature, yet differ in both the object and the subject. This [i.e. the Pilgrimage] being mine own in matter, though borrowed, and in form of words and method; whereas my Pilgrimes are the authors themselves."
Complete sets of Purchas are rare, as sets often lack the engraved title or full page maps such as Smith's Virginia or New England & Canada, all present here. We trace a few other sets in similar bindings prepared by W. Pratt, all with similarly described repairs. In all, the present is a pleasing set of this landmark work. Church 401a; Arents 158; Sabin 66682-66686; Shirley, World 311; STC 20509, 20508; Streeter sale 1:36
C Private Collection of Barbara and Ira Lipman
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