Search Results: Authors starting with C from Bruce Marshall Rare Books

London: Thomas East, 1582, Small quarto (194 x 137 mm). 170 leaves, woodcut border device surrounding title,early ms on verso, woodcut initials throughout, an early but later calf binding with elaborate gilt drops, central gilt device on both covers, a very attractive binding.First English edition of one of the first works in English on world exploration. Dedicated to Sir Francis Drake.Originally published in Coimbra in 1551, the present text represents one of the most important historical works of the first great age of discovery. Translated by Nicholas Lichefield.Most of the ...Historie... is devoted to the great Portuguese thrust into Asia in the early 16th century, chronicling their epic expansion to India, the East Indies, and China between 1497 and 1525. Castanheda himself spent some two decades in the Portuguese colonies in the East, and so was well equipped to write this account. It is one of the primary sources for the early Portuguese trading empire, a model that the British were beginning… Read More

London: for Timothy Childe, 1698, 8vo (17.2 x 10.7 cm)pp. [6] 120, 5 engraved folding plates, contemporary ownership inscription 'B Barnes' to head, contemporary panelled calf, restored.
The Rare First Edition in English of one of the first scientific inquiries into the possibility of extra-terrestrial life, first published in Latin earlier the same year as Kosmotheros, sive de terris coelestibus, earumque ornatu, conjecturae. 'Huygens's reasoning is that it is in the creation of life and living beings that the wisdom and providence of God are most manifest. In the Copernican world system ... the earth holds no privilieged position among the other planets. It would therefore be unreasonable to suppose that life should be restricted to earth alone' (DSB).
Christiaan Huygens Dutch physicist, mathematician, astronomer and inventor, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time and a major figure in the scientific revolution. In physics, Huygens made groundbreaking contributions in… Read More

FIRST EDITION, viii-349[3], folding map frontispiece showing Central America and the Isthmus of Panama., lower margin of map trimmed without loss, modern speckled calf, a.e.g., 8vo, London, C. Rivington, 1735First edition of an important work on Central America, with a first hand account of the pirates Captain Johnson and Poleas. Cockburn was an English seaman who had sailed to the coast of Central America in 1731. Cockburn's ship was attacked by the infamous pirates Captain Johnson and Poleas off the coast of Jamaica. Johnson was known as a ruthless and bloodthirsty pirate, said to be an excellent shot despite missing a hand. After a five hour battle Cockburn's ship surrendered and Johnson's pirates boarded and looted. Cockburn, Thomas Rounce, Richard Banister, John Holland, Thomas Robinson, and John Ballman found themselves 'naked and wounded', stranded on the shore at Porto-Cavalo. They escaped from jail in San Pedro Sula in Honduras, crossed the Isthmus to San Salvador. They then crossed Guatemala… Read More

Mexico City, 9th day of March,1573, size 450 x 320mm
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE'S ENGLISH PIRATES
Arrest Warrant For English Pirates Signed By The First Inquisitor of New Spain in 1573
Remarkable arrest warrant, signed by the Inquisitor of New Spain, directing the arrest and capture of 5 accused heretics, including two English Pirates, who had recently completed a daring jail break from prison in Mexico City.
This is an official arrest warrant, dated March 9, 1573, ordered by Pedro Moya de Contreras (c. 1528-1591), first inquisitor of the newly founded Mexican Inquisition, addressed to Don Alonso Sánchez de Miranda, Dean of Guadalajara.
Moya de Contreras arrived in New Spain in 1571, as the newly appointed inquisitor, thereafter rising to the office of Archbishop of Mexico City and finally Viceroy of New Spain (1584-1585). This two-fold letter is part of the legacy of the Inquisition in the New World, aimed at ecclesiastical authorities and their flock to raise awareness of the rampant menace of Lutheran… Read More

London, E. Newbury, 1785, Second and enlarged edition, Contemporary calf gilt, with a folding engraved map and 10 engraved plates, one folding which is the first representation of Hawaii.
This work is attributed to Lieutenant John Rickman, who served as second lieutenant on the 'Discovery', Charles Clerk, Commander. This is the first full account in English of Cook's third voyage and has an important description of the death of Cook in Hawaii.It was first published in 1781, three years before the official account.
"This anonymous journal, of Captain Cook's third voyage, was once believed to have been written by John Ledyard, who had actually made liberal use of Lieutenant Rickman's account; hence the confusion. This narrative anticipated the government's authorized account by two years. All the journals kept on board were claimed by the Admiralty, thus the author remained strictly anonymous. The text, especially as regards details of Cook's death, differs considerably from other accounts." Hill
Hill,… Read More

London: Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1773,Contemporary full mottled calf gilt, a very attractive set.
FIRST EDITION, 3 volumes, 52 engraved plates, charts and maps (most folding or double-page, including "A Chart of the Straights of Magellan")
Volume I contains the voyages of Byron, Carteret and Wallis, with the discovery of Tahiti, and volumes II-III contain Hawkesworth's edited account of Lieutenant Cook's voyage (he was only promoted to Captain on his return). Cook's instructions for this first voyage were to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti and to carry on John Byron's survey and examination of the seas between Cape Horn and New Holland, but they did not extend to searching for Terra Australis. He did, however, add more than 5,000 miles of coastline to Admiralty charts for Tahiti, Australia and the Great Barrier Reef, and New Zealand, which he circumnavigated.
[Beddie, BCJC 648; Hill (2004) 782; Sabin 30934]

Large Vellum Document [580 x 410mm], Westminster, Aug 11th, 1657.
Address and Title illuminated in Gold Script with Large Seal of the Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
The English ship Resolution, laden with cloth, tin, lead and money bound for Scanderone [the port of Aleppo] was attacked by 7 ships from Tripoli, near Candy and taken in defiance of capitulations. Cromwell demands an inquiry and that these Sea Rovers should be punished.
'As we have now done to the grand signor your lord and master, so doe we also to you complaine of an Act of violence and injustice towards divers Merchants of this Commonwealth interested in an English Ship called the Resolution which being laden with Cloth, Tynn & mony & bound for the Grand Signors owne port of Scanderone in a peaceable course of Trading, was notwithstanding in her way neare Candy assaulted by seven Tripoly men of warre actually engaged in the Grand Signors service, & by them carried to Rhods, where the Captaine Bassa both secured the… Read More