Duhaut-Cilly, Auguste:

$1,250 · Offered by William Reese Company

VIAGGIO INTORNO AL GLOBO PRINCIPALMENTE ALLA CALIFORNIA ED ALLE ISOLE SANDWICH NEGLI ANNI 1826, 1827, 1828 E 1829.... The second edition and the first in Italian, following the French edition of 1834-35. A primary source on Mexican California. Duhaut-Cilly was a French trader who arrived in Yerba Buena in 1827, spending most of that year along the California coast. "He was the first outlander to become intimately acquainted with, and describe, the then thriving Spanish California." The book was first published in Paris in 1834-35, and that edition is so rare that Howell surmised only about a dozen complete copies were known (Catalogue 50, item 64). This second edition, in Italian, was translated by Paolo Emilio Botta, the ship's doctor. It is much expanded, with additional chapters on Dr. Botta's observations. "This is an important edition....It includes for the first time, in book form, an essay by Dr. Botta, 'Observations on the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands and California'" - Forbes. There is also an Italian-Hawaiian vocabulary. Besides California, the ship visited the Hawaiian Islands. Three of the plates show San Francisco, San Luis Rey, and Fort Ross. One plate shows Hawaii. In 1997 the Book Club of California published a fine-press edition of the first edition in English.

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