Carpenter (Nathaniel, Fellow of Exeter College in Oxford), G...

Estimate

£400 - £600

Carpenter (Nathaniel, Fellow of Exeter College in Oxford), Geographie (sic) Delineated Forth in Two Bookes (sic), Containing The Sphericall (sic) and Topicall (sic) parts thereof, two parts in one, second edition, first corrected thus, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield, for Henry Cripps, and are to be sold by Henry Curteyne, 1635, general and divisional title-pages, in-text illustrations of diagrams and scientific instruments, 4 tables, of which 3 (of 4, apparently lacking the second) are folding and 1 is letterpress within the register, otherwise textually complete, including the leaf of verse, contents collating: [xvi], 272; [xvi], 286pp; i.e. +⁸ A-R⁸; *⁸ ²A-R⁸ ²S⁶, of which O1 with loss to corner of margin; Q5 has a marginal paper flaw, with slight loss of two letters, but not of sense; ²L1 paper flaw with loss of few letters recto and verso; +1 detached but present, worm trail to fore-margin of the final two thirds of the second part, but clean and gradually becoming indistinct, alternately toned throughout, one example of contemporaneous manuscript marginalia, 20th c quarter-calf over papered boards, lettered in gilt, 8vo

Second edition of an important treatise on theoretical geography, the first written in English. Pages 115-131 in the second part relate to America with discussion on the possibility of a Northwest Passage, the voyages and explorations of Columbus, Magellan, Drake, Cabot, Davis, Frobisher, Hudson, etc., and passages on Hudson's Bay and Newfoundland. Carpenter also mentions that, according to a Spanish chart taken by Hollanders, California has been discovered to be an island rather than part of the continent although the evidence 'seems rather to cherish hope, than persuade consent.' 'Unable himself fully to accept the Copernican system [of the universe], Carpenter presented his readers with a faithful account of it and encouraged them to weigh the evidence for themselves' (ODNB).