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PURCHAS, SAMUEL.
Purchas His Pilgrimes.
5 (of 6) folding or double-page
engraved maps (Mughal Empire, Greenland, China, North America, Virginia); lacks the
map of New England/Canada. Also lacking the engraved additional title in Volume 1 and
initial blank in Volumes 3 and 4. 4 volumes *
Purchas His Pilgrimage.
Double-page
engraved map of China. Together, 5 volumes. Folio, 324x213 mm, mid-19th-century gilt-
lettered cloth with spines partly numbered out of order, small hole at top of Volume 2
spine; heavy foxing at beginning and end of the first 3 volumes of Purchas His Pilgrimes,
light to moderate foxing elsewhere, unobtrusive marginal pencil markings throughout; for
further condition details see the online catalogue description at swanngalleries.com. Signet
Library bookplate on front pastedowns, their ownership inscription in blank gutter of titles.
London: William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, 1625; 1626
[30,000/50,000]
FIRST EDITION
of the main work, “one of the fullest and most important collections of voyages
and travels in the English language” (Church), with part of the third and all of the fourth vol-
ume devoted to the New World. “It was based in part on Hakluyt’s remaining manuscripts,
which Purchas had acquired about 1620 . . . The result was a four-volume folio that took more
than three years to print; at the time of its publication it was the largest book ever seen through
the English press” (ODNB). Included as a supplement is the fourth edition of the 1613
Purchas His Pilgrimage, the first comprehensive study of the diversity of world religions, of
which pages 791-967 concern the Americas. Alden 625/173, 626/101; Church 401A;
1403; STC 20509, 20508.5.