1 / 2
Description
SPARRMAN (André).
A Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, and Round the World with Captain Cook, and chiefly through the lands of the Hottentots and the Xhosa.
Paris: Buisson, 1787. — 2 volumes in-4, 252 x 196: frontispiece, (2 ff.), xxj pp., (1 f.), 478 pp., 1 map, 6 plates; (2 ff.), 462 pp., (1 blank folio), 9 plates. Marbled calfskin, with triple gilt fillet framing the covers, decorated ribbed spine, red edges (contemporary binding).
First edition of the French translation by Le Tourneur. It is illustrated with a frontispiece, a large folded map and 15 separate plates depicting weapons, ornaments, and flora and fauna. The original Swedish edition was published in 1783.
Described by Chadenat (1751) as ‘a most interesting work, providing valuable information on this part of Africa, both from a geographical and a naturalist’s perspective’, this account is the work of André Sparrman (1747–1820), a Swedish naturalist and disciple of Linnaeus. Having arrived at the Cape of Good Hope as early as 1772, he met Johann Forster, a naturalist on Cook’s expedition, who was then preparing for his second voyage round the world. Impressed by Sparrman’s knowledge of botany and zoology, Forster, with Cook’s consent, invited him to join them as a botanist. During the expedition, Sparrman discovered new species of birds, including the New Zealand parakeet, the spotted cormorant and the weka.
On his return to Cape Town in March 1775, he became the first European to undertake a journey into the interior, setting off as early as July. His nine-month journey enabled him to study at close quarters animal species then little known in Europe, such as wild elephants and hyenas (which he named ‘wolf-tigers’), but also to provide the first accurate descriptions of the African rhinoceros, the Cape buffalo, the Cape jerboa and various African lizards.
On his return to Sweden in 1776, he was elected President of the Academy of Sciences and Director of the Royal Cabinet of Natural History in Stockholm. His account is brimming with valuable observations on flora and fauna, as well as ethnographic details about the peoples he encountered. The work concludes with a glossary of the Xhosa and Hottentot languages.
A blunt corner; small wormholes in the binding of the second volume. Corner restoration on folio G2 in the first volume, without affecting the text. A perforation on folio Ff3 in the same volume, affecting the text. A minor wormhole in the lower margin of the first 210 pages of the second volume. Scattered foxing and a few browned folios.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale
Claude Mozis Library – Black Africa and the African diaspora
Auction location
Auction time
10/21/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like