LA BARBINAIS LE GENTIL, Etienne M. (1725-1792). Nouveau Voyage autour de Monde. Paris, 1728, 1729. Later edition.
3 volumes, 12mo (160 x 91 mm). With engraved allegorical frontispiece, 9 engraved folding charts and plans, 8 engraved plates. (D11 supplied and repaired in partial facsimile.) Contemporary French speckled calf gilt, spines gilt, tan calf lettering-pieces gilt (some minor wear).Later edition, first published in Paris in 1725. Barbinais' was one of the few private 18th-century French commercial circumnavigations conducted outside the jurisdiction of trading companies. He sailed in 1714 with goods to sell in Chile and Peru, only to sell at a loss. He sailed through the Marianas, around the Cape of Good Hope, and landed in Brazil before reaching Spain. He sold the remains of his goods, also at a loss. According to Burney, "the account is full of obscurity, which may have proceeded from the ignorance of the writer on maritime subjects, and from his general want of judgment. M. de Brosses has allowed credit to the narration as being genuine, observing at the same time that it was one of small importance to the history of navigation or commerce." RARE. Burney IV, 508; Sabin 38397.
