Description

PUBLICATION DETAILS: Berlin: A. Haude und J.C. Spener, 1774.  First German edition of John Hawkesworth’s 1773 account of Cook’s first voyage (1768-1771).  Two of three quarto volumes. [8], 54, [2], 459, [1, blank]; and [2], 6, [4], 408 pp.  Half title in Volume 1.  Complete with fifty-four engraved plates and maps (21 called for in vol. 1 plus one extra and 22 called for in vol. 2 plus 10 extra).  Five raised bands with decorative tooling, title (Cook’s Reisen) and volume numbers 1 and 2. 

JOHN HAWKESWORTH (1715-1773):  Hawkesworth was commissioned by the Admiralty to edit Captain James Cook’s papers relative to his first voyage, “”An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of his Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and successively performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour: drawn up from the journals….” Unfortunately, Hawkesworth composed the account of Cook’s voyage in the first person of Cook, incorporating material from both Cook’s notes and those of the ship’s naturalist Joseph Banks, as well as his own commentary, without distinguishing the sources.  Thus the reader does not know whose views are being expressed.

TRANSLATION: In 1774 Hawkesworth’s edition was translated to German by Johann Friedrich Schiller (1737-1814), nephew of Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, a foremost German poet and dramatist.  Johann Schiller translated a number of works including William Robertson’s “The History of America.”

VOYAGES:
Commodore Byron’s “Reise um die Welt … dem Dolphin, wahrend den Jahren 1764, 1765 und 1766….”  (Vol. 1, pp. 1-134).

Captain Wallis’ “Reise um die Welt, in den Jahren 1766, 1767 und 1768 … dem Dolphin.”  (Vol. 1, pp. 135-300).
Captain Carteret’s “Reise um die Welt, in den Jahren 1766, 1767, 1768 und 1769 … die Swallow.”  (Vol. 1, pp. 301-459).

Lieutenant (Captain) Cook’s “Reise um die Welt, in den Jahren 1768, 1769, 1770 und 1771 [in the Endeavour].”  (Vol. 2 and continued in Vol. 3, not present).

CONDITION: Some wear to extremities.  Dime-size brown spots on 4 pages. Spine on volume one partly torn loose on right side.

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