COOK, Capitaine James - [COOK] Relation des voyages entrepris par ordre de sa Majesté Britannique, actuellement Regnante, - 1774

"James Cook (1728-1779) was a navigator, explorer, cartographer and captain in the British Royal Navy. He produced detailed maps of the Canadian island of Newfoundland before making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he established the first recorded contact of Europeans with the eastern coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, as well as the first circumnavigation of New Zealand. On his Pacific itinerary, Cook sailed thousands of miles through unexplored zones of the globe, charted lands in New Zealand and Hawaii with great detail and at a scale never achieved before. As he progressed in his voyages of discovery, he explored and named various places, in addition to recording the location of islands and coasts on European maps for the first time. Many islands, such as Easter Island and the Hawaiian archipelago, were located for the first time with certainty by Europeans, and his greatest achievement was the creation of naval cartography of large areas of the Pacific with high precision" - Wikipedia.

Quoted first French edition, printed in Paris in 1774, of the famous travel book "Relation des voyages entrepris par ordre de Sa Majesté Britannique, actuellement reine, pour faire des découvertes dans l'hémisphère sud, et effectués successivement par le Commodore Byron, le capitaine Carteret, le capitaine Wallis et le capitaine Cook à bord des navires Dolphin, Swallow et Endeavour; rédigee à partir des journaux tenus par les différents commandants".

This fundamental work in the history of explorations is an official compilation of incalculable documentary value. It describes the four first circumnavigation expeditions undertaken in the 18th century by British navigators John Byron (1764-1766), Philip Carteret (1766-1768), Samuel Wallis (1766-1768) and James Cook (1768-1771). Drafted by the jurist and writer John Hawkesworth, the compendium details the discoveries of these sailors and offers valuable observations on South America and the islands of the Pacific. Thus, the work not only became an essential scientific guide for future missions, but also a cultural milestone by revealing, for the first time and with rigor, the secrets of the South Pacific to European society.

This is the sought-after In-4 edition of 26 cm (in the same year another smaller In-8 edition was issued). Volume two (of 4) which contains, among other things, part of the first French edition of Cook's first voyage or Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The first voyage of the famous explorer and cartographer James Cook was an expedition to the South Pacific organized in a joint effort by the Royal Navy and the Royal Society that took place from August 1768 to July 1771 and in which, aboard the HMB Endeavour, Cook and his men circumnavigated the globe. Contents of this second volume:

• Relation of a voyage around the world undertaken in the years 1766, 1767 and 1768 by Samuel Wallis, commander of the king's Dolphin ship. (Coasts of Patagonia, Strait of Magellan, Tahiti, inhabitants, Tinian, Batavia, Cape of Good Hope).
• Relation of a voyage around the world undertaken in the years 1769, 1770 and 1771 by Captain James Cook, commander of the king's Endeavour ship. Book I: (Plymouth, Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, Tierra del Fuego, Le Maire Strait, Cape Horn, Tahiti, indigenous people, Tahitians, Morai, canoes, war, customs, government of the Tahitians).

Illustrated copy with 16 extraordinary engravings (complete) providing valuable visual documentation of the explorations, scenes of daily life, and portraits of local populations encountered (loose engravings from this first edition can be found on the antique books market priced around €100 each). Original Dutch binding with parchment spine and boards. Titled spine. Very worn as is common with travel books, but still well bound to the block. Interior also worn. Text in French. 26 x 20 cm, 1430 g. [6], 536 pp. + 16 folding engravings. Voyages by sea - Pacific Ocean - Voyages and explorations in Oceania.

COOK, Capitaine James; Carteret; Byron; Wallis, Hawkesworth, J. Relation des voyages entrepris par ordre de sa Majesté Britannique, actuellement Régnante, pour faire des découvertes dans l'Hémisphere Méridional, et successivement exécutés par le Commodore Byron, le Capitaine Carteret, le Capitaine Wallis & le Capitaine Cook, dans les Vaisseaux le Dauphin, le Swallow & l'Endeavour rédigée d'apres les journaux tenus par les différens Commandans & les papiers de M. Banks, par J. Hawkesworth ... ; traduite de l'anglois; tome second. A Paris: chez Saillant et Nyon, chez Panckoucke, 1774


Ref. librería: C95390300875