Books and Manuscripts

Sanson d'Abbeville, N(icholas).
l'Afrique en plusiers cartes nouvelles, et exactes; & en divers traicte's de geographie, et d'histoire...
Paris: Chez L'Autheur, 1656. First edition. 4to. Unpaginated. Illustrated with 18 engraved double-page maps, each with hand-colored outlining. Contemporary brown mottled calf, rebacked with portions of original spine laid down, boards and extremities rubbed; all edges trimmed; foxing to prelims and scattered in text; scattered toning to text; interleaved with blanks sheets, with manuscript on leaf following fourth map. From the library of British collector Humphrey Winterton, and with his book-plate on front paste-down; in full brown niger solander box; by G.M.

A handsome first edition of Nicholas Sanson d'Abbeville's atlas of Africa. Considered one of the best atlases of the continent published in the 17th century, and containing 18 maps of Africa’s various regions. This work was the third book in Sanson's series of four atlases of the continents of the world, the others being on America, Europe, and Asia, and published between 1648-57.