COOK (James) - Lot 511

COOK (James) Voyage dans l'hémisphère austral et autour du Monde, fait sur les vaisseaux du Roi, L'Aventure, & La Résolution, en 1772, 1773, 1774 et 1775. Written by Jacques Cook, commander of La Résolution; in which we have inserted the relation of Captain Furneaux, & that of M. Forster. Translated from the English. Paris, Hôtel de Thou, 1778. 5 volumes in-4; 65/66 plates and maps including fold-outs with frontispiece portrait by Bernard (numbered 1-65, with 10 bis; plate 2 is missing) and 2 fold-out tables. Contemporary marbled fawn calf, ornate ribbed spine, red title-pieces and tomaisons, bumping with minor lifting of leather to 2 headpieces, triple gilt fillet framing the boards, double gilt fillet on the edges, marbled edges. A good copy. First edition of the French translation of Captain Cook's Relation du second voyage. The whole is composed of the voyage itself, a vocabulary of languages, astronomical observations, a discourse on the health of seafarers, observations on soil and land, observations on sea water, observations on the atmosphere, observations on the revolutions of our globe, observations on organized bodies and observations on the human species.