Australian Rare Books 1606-1787

Just published indispensable reference work for map and book collectors documenting the printed material for the search and discovery of New Holland from 1606 to the year prior to the arrival of the First Fleet to Botany Bay

Only 220 copies for sale. A must have. Free Express shipping Australia wide.

Large octavo, 255 x 180 mm, 470 pages, 103 illustrations (17 in colour), twelve chapters, and two Checklists. Set in Adobe Garamond 11 / 13. Printed and bound in Australia on 100 gsm Sovereign Offset and bound in dark green buckram blocked in gilt, with colour pictorial dustwrapper.

It lists and discusses the printed works telling the story of the discovery of Australia, as the Dutch and English mariners first identified parts of New Holland’s outline, and then completed the map of the entire continent. Wantrup provides detailed descriptions of these books, which should prove invaluable to collectors, curators, cataloguers, and booksellers as well giving the rarity of the works.

It is also the story of two centuries of geo-political and trade forces that drove the search for Terra Australis Incognita and the uncovering of the Pacific, analysed in light of the publications of the Spanish, Dutch, French, and English exploring nations from the time they first venture into the Pacific around Cape Horn. Wantrup analyses both official and unofficial accounts of voyages, while also providing a lively statement of the achievements of the scientists and mariners responsible for them.