MALASPINA, Alessandro (1754-1810). Viaje poltico-cientfico alrededor del mundo por las corbetas descubierta y atrevida al mando de los Capitanes de Navo D. Alejandro Malaspina y Don Jos Bustamente y Guerra. Madrid: Widow and Heirs of Abienzo, 1885. Folio (320 x 213 mm). Printed on thick paper. Etched portrait, 6 etched plates after B. Maura, lithographed folding map. (Slightly toned.) Publisher's crimson cloth presentation binding.FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, PRESENTATION COPY from the editor, inscribed on the half-title by the editor Don Pedro De Novo y Colson to Don Jos de Ojo y Gomez in 1885. A second edition (sometimes called the second issue) was published immediately after this first edition; it differs from the first by the addition of the words "Segunda Edicin" to the title-page, and is printed on inferior paper.Though Malaspina's account of his voyage was not published until nearly a century after it occurred, the expedition was "Spain's greatest scientific voyage of exploration to the South Seas in the eighteenth century [considered by some to be] as great as those of La Perouse of Captain Cook" (Hill). Malaspina and Bustamente y Guerra explored present-day California and the Northwest coast extensively. The present edition was edited from Malaspina's papers by Novo y Colson; earlier accounts of the voyage were published by Jose Espinosa Y Tello in 1809, and Francisco Xavier de Viana in 1849. EXCEEDINGLY RARE: we trace no copies of this first edition sold at auction in over 40 years. Ferguson 12207; Hill 1068; Hogwego M26; Palau 147592.