CONDAMINE - JOURNEY TO THE INTERIOR OF SOUTHERN AMERICA - 1745

Materia: Travels. América.

Publicación: París, chez la veuve Pissot, 1745 y 1746.

Descripción física: 8º. 1: 4 h., XVI+216 p; and a folded map: “Cours du Maragnon ou de la grande Riviere des Amazones”. With small water stain in upper inner corner, showing through to p. 50. 2: Title page, 108 p; and folded intaglio plate (“Vué d'une place preparée pour une course de taureaux en la ville de Cuenca au Perou”. Period leather binding, with restored spine; printed “Biblioteque de V. Perdonnet” on the front board.

Conservación: Good.

Otros datos: First edition: in 1735 the French Academy of Sciences despatched two expeditions, one to the Arctic circle, the other to the Equator, to measure degrees of meridian with the purpose of verifying "Newton's hypothesis on the flattening of the terestrial globe in the polar regions and, thereby, the resolution of the controversy regarding the form of the earth" (DSB). The arc of meridian selected for La Condamine's expedition passed through a high valley nearly perpendicular to the equator, extending from Quito in the north to Cuenca in the south. Measurements were begun, but financial aid expected from Paris did not materialise and La Condamine had to make a long and difficult journey to bankers in Lima. In his absence, his colleagues, Louis Godin and Pierre Bouger, had quarrelled and the rest of the survey was marred by acrimonious disputes. The three scientists travelled home independently, La Condamine chosing the longest and most dangerous route, the Amazon, from its source to Pará. This journey is described in the present Relation, which is written in a "lively and picturesque style...full of interesting and curious observations". The map of the Amazon region is especially noteworthy since it is "the first to have been drawn in which the latitudes were observed. Is shows, by dotted lines, the course of the river according to Father Fritz's map, and reveals his mistakes [and] indicates for the first time the course of the Araguay" (Borba de Moraes).

Borba de Moraes (1983), p. 446; Palau, 129370; Sabin, 38484.