THEVENOT Melchisédech Relations de divers voyages curieux, qui n’ont point esté publiées, et qu’on a traduit ou tiré des Originaux des Voyageurs François, Espagnols, Allemands, Portugais, Anglois, Hollandois, Persans, Arabes & autres Orientaux… Le tout enrichi de figures, de plantes non décrites, d’Animaux inconnus à l’Europe, & de Cartes Geographiques, qui n’ont point encore été publiées. Nouvelle édition, augmentée de plusieurs Relations curieuses.

Bagnall, 5521; Bremer sale, 864; Church, 672 (4 parts only); Davidson Sale, 20; Davidson, ‘A Book Collector’s Notes’, pp. 28-9; Hocken, pp.2-4; JCB (1675-1700), pp. 335-341; Lach, ‘Asia in the Making of Europe’, III.3.1512-13 & especially 1519-20; Tooley, 23.25 and plate XI; Brunet V, 810-813; Camus (Thévenot), 279-341; Cordier, Sinica, 1944, & Japonica, 33; Gay, 134; Pardo de Tavera, 2701; Sabin, 95334; JCB (4), 335-341  ; Alden, 696/214. – See also Palau, Sommervogel, Streit, Medina, Tiele, Navarrete, Retana, etc.

The rare, best and first complete edition of one of the most important of all travel collections, lavishly illustrated, and especially significant for the first appearance of numerous descriptions of the Pacific, the Far East, Australia and the Philippines.

This was the first major work on Australia and the Pacific to receive a wide European readership. Sets of the work, containing all five parts, and particularly all of the required maps, are of great rarity. When complete, the geographical scope of the collection is nearly universal, taking in the Americas, China, Japan, Siam, the Philippines, Mongolia, India, Tartary, Egypt, Persia, Arabia, Asia Minor and Russia. Virtually all the component parts are enriched by illustration, the choice of material sometimes unpredictable and quite idiosyncratic: it ranges from detailed charts of coastlines suitable for navigational purposes, and a number of cartographically important maps, to depictions of botanical specimens, exotic cultural practices and writing systems.

The range and quirky variety makes this one of the visual feasts of travel literature. Melchisédec Thévenot’s (1620?-1692) collection includes Pelsaert’s account of his discovery of Australia, documenting the experiences of the earliest European settlers on the continent and describing the Aboriginal people for the first time. Pelsaert recounts details of the wreck of the Batavia and his subsequent struggle with a mutinous crew. Accompanying the Pelsaert account is the rare and famous map of Abel Tasman’s discoveries, ‘one of the earliest charts devoted entirely to Australia and the first French map of the continent’ (Davidson).

The first published result of Tasman’s great voyages, it was Thévenot’s map which gave the world the first clear idea of the shape and location of the new fifth continent. The Tasman map appeared in at least four different states: in this copy it is in its fourth and final state, with corrections, and with the addition of the Tropic of Capricorn, rhumb lines and Tasman track.

The volumes are illustrated with 15 folding maps and charts, including large folding maps of Australia, China, the Pacific, with the Philippines and Japan, and the map of Edo, North Japan (which is often lacking), 13 engraved plates of costumes, plants, animals, alphabets etc., 46 full-page woodcut plates of Mexican inscriptions and pictograms etc…Thévenot’s work has one of the most complicated publication histories, since it was published over the course of more than thirty years, and a comparison of copies, even in contemporary bindings like that offered here, inevitably demonstrates some variation in organization and contents.

A very full collation of this complete copy has been prepared and is available on request.