Kaaterskill Books

Exquisite Engravings of the French Expedition

Ulloa, Antonio de.; Juan y Santacilia, Jorge.

Voyage historique de l'Amerique Meridionale fait par ordre du Roi d'Espagne par don George Juan ... et par don Antoine de Ulloa ... ouvrage orne' des figures, plans et cartes necessaires et qui contient une histoire des Yncas du Perou, et les observations astronomiques & physiques, faites pour déterminer la figure & la grandeur de la terre [Two Volumes].

Paris: Chez Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1752. [xxii], 554; [ii], 316, [vi], [viii], [3]-309, [iii] pp. p. 238 misnumbered 338. Illus. with two engraved frontispieces, 54 engraved maps, plans, and scenes (most folding) on 53 sheets; plus engraved title vignettes and head and tail pieces. Engravings by Frans de Bakker, François Morellon La Cave, Jacob Folkema, Duflos, 4to. Black calf, rebacked with black morocco, over marbled boards, five raised bands, two compartment lettered in gilt. First edition in French. Very good copies, boards rubbed, spines worn with a small chip to the rebacking, scattered foxing, and a few of the later scientific plates browned, otherwise impressions quite sharp. Palau 125473. Sabin 36812. JCB III: 974. Medina BHA: 3464. LCP. Afro-Americana: 5409. Hill 1740. Item #40249

Title in red and black; engraved title vignettes. Translations by E. de Mauvillon of Ulloa's "Relacion historica del viage a la America Meridional," and of the companion work by Jorge Juan y Santacilia, entitled, "Observations astronomicas y physicas hechas de orden de S. Mag. en los reynos del Perù" (both published at Madrid in 1748); and of Garcilaso de la Vega's "Comentarios reales de los Incas." This copy with the Paris imprint, but Sabin argues it is just a change to the title page of the Arkste's & Merkus edition (Amsterdam et Leipzig) the same year. In 1735 the French Academy of Science requested permission to send an expedition to the equatorial regions of Spanish controlled South America in order for Charles de la Condamine and other French scientists to measure several degrees of meridian at the equator. By comparing their results with those obtained by a similar mission to Lapland, the Academie hoped to settle the controversy between the Newtonians and the Cartesians over whether the earth was flattened or elongated at the poles. Ulloa and Juan y Santacilia, Spain's best scientific officers, were sent along. Despite great difficulties, the expedition's geodetic measurements proved the validity of Newton's hypothesis. Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Girault (1716 -1795) was later the first Spanish governor of Louisiana though he was deposed in 1768 after two years, during a creole revolt and also served as governor of Huancavelica in Peru.

Price: $2,250.00