Antilles - DU TERTRE (R. P. Jean-Baptiste). Histoire général - Lot 71

Lot n° 71
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Antilles - DU TERTRE (R. P. Jean-Baptiste). Histoire général - Lot 71
Antilles - DU TERTRE (R. P. Jean-Baptiste). Histoire générale des Antilles habitées par les François. Divisée en deux tomes, Et enrichie de cartes & de figures. Paris, Thomas Jolly, 1667-1671. 4 volumes in 3 volumes of : I. 1 frontispiece, [11] ff (including the folio with the coat of arms), 593 (mal ch. 935) pp, [3] pp, 3 double-page engraved maps; II. frontispiece, [8] ff. 539 pp. 14 plates out of text, 5 on double page or folding (tears summarily restored on plate 3); III: [4] ff (of 7 missing, among others, the leaf with the coat of arms) 317 pp, [9] pp, 2 double-page maps; [6] ff (missing the leaf with the coat of arms), 362 pp, [7] ff, 4 double-page plates (small worm gallery in the margin of one plate). Brown calf, spine ribbed and decorated (period bindings, but different in the 3rd volume). (Bindings worn, one spine detached, leather missing and rubbed). Complete first edition of "one of the most valuable work we possess on the West Indies" (Sabin, 21458). (Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 1314; Picot, Rothschild Catalogue, 1984). "This work is very difficult to find complete. Fr. Dutertre says in his preface that he had his book printed in 1654, because someone had stolen his copy. While he was having it printed, Fr. Breton was asked, by M. de Poincy, to give his vocabulary of the savage language, and some memoirs he had composed, to an unknown person who wished to write a history of the West Indies. He has since learned that it was Sieur Rochefort, minister of Rotterdam, who, after receiving P. Breton's vocabulary, and informed of the printing of his work, published his own in 1658, under the title 'Histoire naturelle des Antilles de l'Amérique'." (Leclerc). "Du Tertre was born in Calais in 1610. His taste for travel led him to take passage aboard a Dutch ship, with which he made several voyages to America; later, he served in the army of the Prince of Orange, then, abandoning this life of adventure, he joined the Friars Preachers. His superiors, taking advantage of his experience, sent him to the West Indies, where he undertook to write the history of the region. His book, the fruit of personal observations, is the most important work ever published on these islands. Subsequent writers have attested to its perfect accuracy". (Picot). Du Tertre spent eighteen years in the West Indies, from 1640 to 1658, during which time he collected a wealth of information on the natural history of these islands, the customs of their inhabitants and the establishment of the French colonies from 1625 to 1667. The illustration consists of an engraved frontispiece, three leaves (2 missing here) depicting the Harlay and Bignon arms, 5 maps and 18 plates.
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