Asia / Cartography, Exploration, Travel & Voyages

BARROS, João de. Asia de Joam de Barros, dos fectos que os Portugueses fizeram no descobrimento conquista dos mares & terras do Oriente [and] Secunda decada da Asia de Joam de Barros dos fectos que os Portugueses fizeram no descobrimento & conquista dos mares & terras do Oriente.
Lisbon, Germão Galharde, 1552-1553. 2 volumes. Folio (volume I: 35.1 x 24.7 cm; volume II: 35.2 x 25.8 cm). With woodcut initials. The first volume in modern limp vellum with calligraphic manuscript lettering to spine and leather ties, expertly styled to match the early binding of the second volume, which is in contemporary limp vellum with calligraphic lettering to spine and partially remnant ties. [2], 128; [2], 143 ll. Full description

BARROS, João de. Década primeira [-terceira] da Asia de João de Barros dos feitos que os Portugueses fizerão no descobrimento & conquista dos mares & terras do Oriente.
Lisbon, Jorge Rodriguez, 1628.
With: BARROS, João de. Quarta década da Asia.
Madrid, na Impressão Real, 1615. 4 volumes. Folio (ca. 29.5 x 19 cm, varying slightly, the fourth volume slightly taller). With 3 full-page maps. Uniform early 20th-century gold-stamped quarter black morocco over marbled papered boards. [7], 208; [5], [1 blank], 238; [10], 262 ll.; engraved title-leaf, [20], 711, [12] pp. Full description

BARROW, John. Reizen in China, ...
Haarlem, François Bohn, 1807-1809. 3 volumes. 8vo. With 10 engraved plates (6 folding, 1 double-page), the double-page plate with 2 portraits hand-coloured, 4 leaves with engraved music, and several woodcut and engraved illustrations in the text. Original publisher's boards. VIII, 288; VI, 334; VI, 341, [1] pp. Full description

BELCHER, Edward. Narrative of a voyage round the world, performed in Her Majesty's ship Sulphur, during the years 1836-1842, including details of the naval operations in China, from Dec. 1840 to Nov. 1841.
London, Henry Colburn, 1843. 2 volumes. 8vo. With a folding map of the Canton river, folding map with the routes of the H.M.S. Sulphur, large world chart also showing the route of the Sulphur, 19 steel-engraved views and several illustrations in text. Gold-tooled blue sheepskin, shell-marbled sides. Rebacked. In modern slipcase. XXII, 387; VI, 474 pp. Full description

BELON, Pierre. Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouvées en Grece, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays estranges.
Paris, Guillaume Cavellat (colophon: printed by Benoist Prévost for Gilles Corozet, Guillaume Cavellat), 1555. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With title in woodcut border with Cavellet's device and initials at the foot, each part-title with Cavellet's woodcut device, 1 folding woodcut map (31.5 x 35 cm) showing Mount Sinai, 44 woodcuts in the text (including a portrait of the author by Geoffroy Tory), and numerous fine decorated initials. Overlapping vellum (ca. 1600?). [12], 212, [1] ll. Full description

BLACKWELL, Thomas Eden. [Sketchbook containing several sketches of India, Burma and Switzerland, with an emphasis on their cultures].
[Various places, ca. 1826-1830]. Oblong 4to. With 66 sketches in pen & ink and pencil, mostly signed by Blackwell, mounted and bound in, with manuscript captions. There is also 1 print (ca. 1795/1800?) drawn by Singey Bey and engraved by Thomas Medland. Half black morocco, black decorated paper sides, gold-tooled ornaments on spine. [70] gray, white and blue album ll., containing 67 sketches and their accompanying manuscript captions and descriptions. Full description

BLAEU, Joan. Grooten atlas, oft werelt-beschryving, in welcke 't aerdryck, de zee, en hemel, wort vertoont en beschreven.
Amsterdam, Joan Blaeu, 1664-1665. 9 volumes. Imperial folio (55.5 × 36.5 cm). With 9 engraved title pages, an engraved frontispiece and 610 engraved maps, views, plans, etc., mostly double-page (53.5 × 64 cm, plate size ca. 42 × 53 cm), 7 larger folding, a few single-page and a few smaller, many including additional inset maps, plans and views, and decorated with coats of arms, human & mythological figures, animals, produce, etc. With the engraved title-pages, frontispiece, other engravings (except for the compass rose and 2 inscriptions), woodcut devices on 4 title-pages and 1 woodcut initial coloured by a contemporary hand (the maps mostly in outline but with their decorations fully coloured) and some (mostly the engraved title-pages) with extensive use of gold. Contemporary gold-tooled vellum. Full description

BODE, Clement Augustus de. Travels in Luristan and Arabistan.
Including: BODE, Clement Augustus de. Observations on the march of Timur ... and on the probable course pursued by Alexander the Great, on his expedition from Susa to Persepolis.
London, J. Madden and Co., 1845. 2 volumes. 8vo. With a wood-engraved illustration on the title-page to each volume, 15 plates, 2 folding engraved maps and 3 wood-engraved illustrations in text. The 15 plates (4 tinted lithographs and 11 wood engravings) consists of 2 frontispieces, a folding plate, a double-page plate and 11 single-page plates. Modern half calf, marbled (Period Binders, Bath, England). XX, 404; XII, 398, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

BONTEKOE, Willem Ysbrantsz. Journael ofte gedenckwaerdige beschrijvinge van de Oost-Indische reyse. Begrijpende veel wonderlijcke en ghevaerlijcke saecken hem daer in weder-varen. Begonnen den 18. December 1618. en vol-eynd den 16. November 1625. Waer by gevoegd is het Journael van Dirck Albertsz Raven, als oock verscheyden gedenckwaerdige geschiedenissen, op veel plaetsen verbetert en een groot deel vermeerdert.
Amsterdam, Joost Hartgers, 1648. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With a double-page engraved plate with 6 views of the ship at fire and in a storm, the islands St. Mary, Samatra and Princes Eyland, and an image of flying fishes. Modern marbled wrappers. [4], 76 pp. Full description

BONTEKOE van HOORN, Willem Ysbrantsz. Gedenkwaardige beschryving, van de achtjarige en zeer avontuurlyke reise van Willem Ysbrantsz Bontekoe van Hoorn, gedaan na Oost-Indien, bevattende vele wonderlyke en gevaarlyke zaken, my op dezelve reise wedervaren. Ook is hier bygevoegt een verhaal van Dirk Albertz. Raven, kommandeur op 't schip Spitsbergen, gedestineert na Groenland.
Amsterdam, Barend Koene, [ca. 1820]. 4to. With a half-page woodcut portrait of Willem Ysbrantsz Bontekoe with the city of Hoorn in the background, 7 (near) half-page woodcut illustrations in the text and a small (typographic) floral tailpiece on the last page. The text of the Bontekoe story is set in Gothic type in two columns, while the tale of Dirk Albertz. Raven is set in a single column in Roman type. Modern half vellum. 64 pp. Full description