Anders Sparrman - Voyage au cap de Bonne-Espérance - 1785

SPARRMAN, Anders (or André)
Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, and around the World with Captain Cook, and chiefly in the Country of the Hottentots and the Caffres.
In Paris, At Buisson, Bookseller, Hôtel de Mesgrigny, rue des Poitevins, No. 13, 1787 (M. DCC. LXXXVII).
Translated by M. Le Tourneur. With Approbation and Privilege of the King.

Original French edition in-8vo in 3 complete volumes:
* Volume One: 1 page of half-title, 1 page of title, [4]-xxxii-388 pages, enriched with plates and folding engraved maps.
* Volume Two: 1 page of half-title, 1 page of title, [4]-503 pages.
* Volume Three: 1 page of half-title, 1 page of title, [4]-466 pages, followed by the King’s privilege and the table of contents.

Ornamented with geographical maps, figures and plates in text-engraved size (depicting the fauna, flora, and customs of the peoples of southern Africa). Complete with its engravings and plates.

Full brown mottled or marbled morocco of the period, spine with five raised bands adorned with floral lozenges and gilt compartments, title pieces in red/brown morocco engraved “VOYAGE AU CAP” and title labels circular or rectangular in gilt (“1”, “2”, “3”). Plain or gilt edges. Superb overall condition. Minor signs of wear. The title-labels of volumes 2 and 3 have been inverted. Each flyleaf bears a fine heraldic armorial bookplate in relief, topped by a comital/marquial crown with the figure of an displayed eagle.

Anders Sparrman, Swedish naturalist and physician, student of the great Linnaeus, embarked in 1772 aboard the Resolution during Captain James Cook’s second famous voyage. Yet it is for his fearless scientific exploration of the interior of South Africa that his narrative became immortal.
Traversing the territories of the Khoikhoi (then called “Hottentots”) and the Xhosas (“Caffres”), Sparrman narrowly escaped death swallowed by giant lizards, trampled by hippos or attacked by beasts. It is to him that the West owes the first precise scientific description of the white rhinoceros and the ratel.
Upon his return to Europe, his narrative enjoyed resounding success. Translated by Pierre-Prime Félicien Le Tourneur in 1787 in Paris, the text offered a keen critique of colonial slavery practiced by the Dutch East India Company at the Cape, blending botanical rigor and the humanist philosophy of the Enlightenment.