Voyage dans l’intérieur de l’Afrique [AND] Second voyage dans l’intérieur de l’Afrique.

Leroy / H.J. Jansen, Paris, 1790 / [1795]

First editions of Le Vaillant’s two travelogues from a time when comparatively little was known about the natural history, inhabitants and Dutch settlers of South Africa.

Description: 2 + 3 vols. Uniformly bound in contemporary quarter calf over brown paper boards, flat spine with red morocco labels lettered in gilt. Octavo: 21 × 13 cm; pp.: (vol.1) [1, frontispiece], xxiv, 383; (vol.2) [1, title], 403; (vol.3) [1, half-title], xliv, 304, [2, errata]; (vol.4) 426, [2, errata]; (vol.5) [2, half-title, title], 525, [5]. Vol. 1 illustrated with 1 frontispiece and 10 engraved plates (of 11); vol. 2 with 21 engraved plates (complete).

Ref.: Boucher iv/241f.; Cox i/389; Henze iii/225f.

Condition: Bindings considerably rubbed, bumped and chipped to board edges. Contents very slightly toned with age and with occasional stains. The fold-out plates are somewhat creased and browned in the margins. In vol. 1 the plate with the view of the Cape of Good Hope is missing, but the often missing plate 7 “La Hottentote” is present.