PURCHAS, Samuel.

Among the double-page maps – here remarkably fresh and clean, in very fine impression, with wide outer margins, and without repairs – shines Henry Briggs’ map of North America, produced by R. Elstracke before 1622. ‘The first printed map in English to show California as an island, it is one of the most important of the time. As a composite, place names are recorded reflecting the nationality of the discoverer, in English, French or Spanish’, with a note engraved in the map stating ‘California sometymes supposed to be a part of ye westerne continent, but since by a Spanish Charte taken by ye Hollanders it is found to be a goodly Ilande: the length of the west shoare beeing about 500 leagues’ (D. Rudderman Coll.). There is also a map of Virginia, published in 1606 after John Smith’s expedition, and one of Sir William Alexander’s voyages, illustrating New England, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The map of China – present in vols III and V – titled in English and Chinese characters, is derived ‘from Luo Hongxian’s general map in his “Guangyu Tu” atlas of 1555’, with the addition of inset pictures (Shirley II, p.1650).  

A fine set of the first edition of this most famous illustrated collection of travel narratives, together with the fourth ed. of ‘Purchas His Pilgrimage’ printed in 1626. The most complete early encyclopaedia of American travel, summarising all the major expeditions to North and South America up to the 1620s, from Columbus to William Hudson’s voyage on the Half-Moon, Smith’s expeditions to Virginia, and those carried out by the Spaniards and Dutch on the West Coast. It includes dozens of stunning engraved maps of North and South America, the North Pole, China, the Middle East, and Greenland, among others, as well as woodcut facsimile renditions of Arabic documents, Ottoman tughras, Mughal illumination, and illustrated Mesoamerican manuscripts. ‘Purchas obtained the use of the copperplates from Hondius’ “Atlas Minor” (1607) […]. The great majority of the maps are from this source, and are here printed as part of the text. […] Purchas had further maps engraved: these include maps of India, China, Greenland, North America and Nova Scotia.’ 

Samuel Purchas (1577-1626) was a cleric in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. Whilst he never travelled further than a few hundred miles from his native town, he edited a collection of unpublished manuscripts left to him by Richard Hakluyt (hence the second title ‘Hakluytus Posthumous’), to which he added reports of sailors returning from their travels. The result was ‘Purchas His Pilgrimes’. ‘This great geographical collection is a continuation and enlargement of Hakluyt’s “The Principal Navigations”. At the death of Hakluyt there was left a large collection of voyages in manuscript which came into the hands of Purchas, who added to them many more voyages and travels […]. Purchas followed the general plan of Hakluyt, but he frequently put the accounts into his own words […]. The main divisions of the work fall into two parts: the first covering the world known to Ptolemy, the second coming down to Purchas’ own day. This fine collection includes the accounts of Cortés and Pizarro, Drake, Cavendish, John and Richard Hawkins, Quiros, Magellan, van Noort, Spilbergen, and Barents, as well as the categories of Portuguese voyages to the East Indies, Jesuit voyages to China and Japan, East India Company voyages, and the expeditions of the Muscovy Company’ (Hill). The four vols examine ancient voyages, customs and languages (e.g., the peregrinations of the Apostles and Patriarchs), the circumnavigation of the globe, explorations in Africa, Arabia, Persia, and India, voyages to Japan, China, the Philippines, and expeditions to the Middle and Far East. The fifth vol., also on world exploration, is considered the ‘fourth and best ed.’ (Sabin) of another travel work published by Purchas in the 1610s, especially important for the accounts of William Hudson’s explorations in North America.  

The double-page maps of North America are remarkably detailed on the coastal areas, showing the Hudson River, dozens of locations in California, Texas, Mexico, Newfoundland, New Britain, Canada, and the Caribbean. A highlight are the woodcut reproductions of unusual alphabets, e.g., hieroglyphs, ancient magical alphabets, and cabbalistic, as well as Arabic, Glagolitic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Dalmatian, and others. Purchas also included woodcut reproductions – among the earliest instances of facsimile in print – of Middle Eastern and South Asian documents (e.g., a letter in Arabic from Sharefoo Boobackar, King of Moyela; a letter in Bani, the Tughra of the Ottoman Sultan) and Ottoman seals, which he found among the East India papers he had access to thanks to acquaintances among the company’s directors. Astounding are the two dozen woodcuts reproducing Mexican illustrated manuscripts with detailed captions and explanations. ‘The idea of a visual compendium of all known examples of a given class of Mexican antiquities was first attempted by Purchas. […] He commissioned line drawings of manuscripts previously owned by Hakluyt and Thevet. […] After Purchas’ death, these manuscripts became part of the collection of John Selden, who bequeathed them, in turn, to the Bodleian Library’ (Miller, p.5).  

 From the Library of the Admiralty Office overlooking Horse Guards, in Whitehall, formerly the administrative headquarter of the Royal Navy. A most appropriate provenance for a book of great voyages.