CARPENTER, Nathanael (1589-1628?). Geography delineated forth in Two Bookes. Containing the sphaericall and topicall parts thereof. Oxford: John Lichfield and William Turner, printers to the famous University, for Henry Cripps, 1625.

4to (208 x 145mm). 3 folding letterpress tables (of 4, lacking that at p. 228 in the second part), woodcut diagrams in text, each part with first and final blanks, errata leaf at end. (Some marginal dust-soiling.) Contemporary olive green velvet over pasteboard, remnants of ties, edges gauffered (text block cracked with some leaves becoming loose, velvet worn); quarter calf folding case. Provenance: Thomas Langley (early calligraphic signatures on front pastedown and free endpaper, one dated 1662).

FIRST EDITION. Carpenter's primer for Oxford students contains a cautious discussion of “a Spanish Chart taken by the Hollanders” showing California as an island; the recent North-West Passage expeditions undertaken by Henry Hudson (1610-11) and Thomas Button (1612-13) are cited as grounds for the author’s skepticism. It also contains an early definition of geography as a discipline. “Unable himself fully to accept the Copernican system, Carpenter presented his readers with a faithful account of it and encouraged them to weigh the evidence for themselves” (ODNB). ESTC S107662; Sabin 10999; STC 4676.

CARPENTER, Nathanael (1589-1628?). Geography delineated forth in Two Bookes. Containing the sphaericall and topicall parts thereof. Oxford: John Lichfield and William Turner, printers to the famous University, for Henry Cripps, 1625.