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Pilinski’s remarkable facsimile of the the ‘Columbus Letter’ (the Latin version printed at Basel in 1493, the first illustrated edition). This is the first issue of the facsimile, made by Pilinksi from the imperfect copy in the Royal Library, Munich (which wants the first and last leaves bearing 4 additional woodcuts). A second issue of 10 leaves added facsimiles of the woodcuts from the copy in the Lenox Library. It is considered that there were only 20 copies of each issue.

Polish born Pilinski (1810-87) was the pre-eminent facsimilist in France, later creating the series Monuments de la Xylographie Française du XV siècle (1882-3) (McKitterick, Old Books, New Technologies, p. 108). He pioneered combined techniques of photography and lithography to create facsimiles of unrivalled quality.

First edition. A collection of photographs, with a written introduction by Hurlimann showing various scenes and famous places of India. He was a Swiss publisher, who founded a newspaper Atlantis, in 1929 which specialised in international travel, but he is best known for being a photographer of Western European cities.

First edition, Bibliothèque des Chemins de Fer issue (of which it forms part of the second series). A fictional account of the voyage to Sydney, the convict regime, the Australian interior and the gold mines. Merruau’s list of sources includes the ‘Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry into the State of the Colony of New South Wales’ as well as Rowcroft’s Tales of the Colonies and Haygarth’s Bush Life in Australia. Freguson, 12528 (first issue without adverts or, presumably, the Bibliothèque des Chemins de Fer series title.

First edition, scarce, dedicated to Jean-Jacques Rousseau by its Scottish author. Captain Cook had returned from his circumnavigation in 1771 to widespread acclaim, and Mercer’s poem reflects this, though he chooses Anson’s round-the-world voyage as the vehicle for his protagonist, St Preux.

First edition in French of Tales of the Colonies, presentation copy, inscribed by the translator. In this, the first of his two novels, Rowcroft drew on his own experience as an Australian settler. The work is in part a guide for prospective settlers and part a sensational tale of the hazards of pioneer-era Van Dieman’s Land: sheep-stealers, bushrangers, Aboriginal attackers, floods, snakes, eagles and wild cattle. Very scarce. OCLC lists 7 copies: Bibliothèque Nationale, University of Basle, National Library of Australia, State Library of New South Wales, State Library of Victoria, University of Melborne and National Library of New Zealand.

First edition in French of Tractatus de globis (1594), an important navigational work originally dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh. Hues had studied at Oxford where he became acquainted with Richard Hakluyt and later, Walter Raleigh and Thomas Harriot, before taking part in a voyage to Newfoundland. In five parts, the book describes the practical uses of the globes designed by Molyneux and, especially, how mariners could find the sun’s position, latitude, course and distance, amplitudes and azimuths, and time and declination. The fifth part describes the use of rhumb lines in navigation.

The translation is by Denis Henrion, the Paris mathematician remembered for his edition of the works of Viète and for the introduction of the calculating device known as the proportional compass to France. Henrion’s is a faithful translation with numerous interpolations of his own (indicated by italics). In these, Henrion adds several practical details to the methods of calculation but also takes the opportunity to advertise his Cosmographie, which was not to appear until two years later. At several points he affirms Hues’ text while stating ‘comme nous avons enseigné en nostre Cosmographie.’ The notes on the operation of the proportional compass promised by the title are confined to very sparse remarks on how a lengthy calculation, for example, could be achieved simply with the compass. They would appear to be an attempt to advertise another of Henrion’s works, Usage du compas de proportion (also 1618) and perhaps the instruments themselves. Copac lists no UK copies. Worldcat lists US copies at Folger, Harvard, Illinois, Minnesota and Brown. Copies of the same year are known with the imprint ‘Michel Daniel’ and identical pagination, primacy, if any is not established.