Voyage Round the World, in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, & 1806, By order of His Imperial Majesty Alexander the First, on board the ships Nadeshda and Neva, under the command of Captain A.J. von Krusenstern, of the Imperial Navy. In two volumes. Translated from the original German by Richard Belgrave Hoppner, Esq. Vol. I. [II.].
London: Printed by C. Roworth...for John Murray, 1813.
The First Russian Voyage around the World
KRUSENSTERN, A[dam] J[ohann] von. Voyage round the World, in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, & 1806, by order of His Imperial Majesty Alexander the First, on board the ships Nadeshda and Neva, under the command of Captain A.J. von Krusenstern, of the Imperial Navy. In two volumes. Translated from the original German by Richard Belgrave Hoppner, Esq. Vol. I. [II.] London: Printed by C. Roworth, for John Murray, 1813.
First edition in English. Two quarto volumes in one. vii, [1, blank], [4, contents], [ix]-xxxii, 314; [9], [1, blank], 404 pp. Folding engraved map (“Chart of the Northwest Part of the Great Ocean”) and two hand-colored aquatint frontispieces for each volume.
Original quarter parchment over drab blue boards. Original printed paper spine label. Uncut. Previous owner's light ink signature on title-page. Very light small library stamp to title-page. Leaf a2 with a few closed tears, neatly repaired. Original paper label a bit rubbed and unreadable. Boards with some light soiling and bumping. A very clean and handsome copy. Housed in a custom quarter morocco clamshell. Overall, an excellent copy.
Laid in is a hand-written half-page letter dated March 1815. The identity of the author is unknown. The letter reads:
"Capt. Krusenstern (of the Russian navy) presents his compliments to Dr. Thomsen and takes the liberty to send him a publication of Professor Carrol, which Capt. Krusenstern has just received from [?]. He at the same time must make every apology for intruding himself on Dr Thomsen [?] the [?] of Dr Thomsens personal acquaintance.
34 Upper Berkley Street 4 March 1815"
Krusenstern (1770-1846), “appointed to command the first Russian round-the-world expedition, had serving with him a brilliant corps of officers, including Lisiansky, Langsdorff, and Kotzebue. The expedition was to attempt to ‘open relations with Nippon and the Sandwich Islands, to facilitate trade in South America, to examine California for a possible colony, and make a thorough study and report of the Northwest coast, its trade and its future.’...The importance of this work is due to its being the official account of the first Russian expedition to circumnavigate the globe, and the discoveries and rectifications of charts that were made, especially in the North Pacific and on the northwest coast of America....The introduction is particularly important and interesting because of the information it contains respecting the state of Russian commerce during the eighteenth century, the Russian voyages and discoveries in the Northern Ocean, and the Russian fur trade” (Hill).
A Russian edition was published in 1809-1814 and a German edition (from which this English edition was translated) in 1810-1814.
Abbey, Travel, 1. Arctic Bibliography 9377. Borba de Moraes pp. 374-5. Hill pp. 167-8. Howes K271. Sabin 38331.
HBS 67660.
$22,500.
Price: $20,000.00
Item #67660