Explore Collections
You are here:
CollectionsOnline
/
Travels in the interior districts of Africa: performed under the direction and patronage of the African Association, in the years 1795, 1796, and 1797. By Mungo Park, surgeon. With an appendix, containing geographical illustrations of Africa. By Major Rennell.
Browse
PARK, Mungo (1771--1806)
Travels in the interior districts of Africa: performed under the direction and patronage of the African Association, in the years 1795, 1796, and 1797. By Mungo Park, surgeon. With an appendix, containing geographical illustrations of Africa. By Major Rennell.
London (Place), printed by W. Bulmer and Co. for the author; and sold by G. and W. Nicol,, 1799.
xxviii, 372, xcii, [6] p., frontis. port., [8] engr. pl. (some fold.) : illus. (music) ; 26.7 cm. (4º)
This was the first book to describe the interior of Africa, of which almost nothing was then known apart from the north-east region and the coastal areas. It was an immediate success, translated into most European languages, and remains a classic of travel literature. The list of subscribers (pp. xxi--xxviii) includes the name of John Soane, Esq. Three of the plates are maps, one hand-coloured. The 'Appendix' has separate title-page, pagination, and register. Includes three leaves of a 'Postscript. ... Song from Mr. Park's Travels', with words by the Duchess of Devonshire and music by G.G. Ferrari, bound in various places in different copies. ESTC n13836. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography gives many details of Park's explorations during which he stayed with slavers but also spent lots of time with Africans and suffered great privations. One paragraph in DNB entry is striking: What was to disconcert (and still disconcerts) some readers was the detached way in which Park wrote not only on slavery but on the slave trade (in which indeed he had been a participant), presenting them without condemnation as established social institutions. Of the proposed abolition of the trade, then an active political issue, his only comment was, 'my opinion is, the effect would neither be so extensive or beneficial as many wise and worthy persons fondly expect' (Travels, 298).
Copy Notes Paid 1 guinea as a subscription on 4 April 1799, with the balance of 10s. 6d. paid to the bookseller on delivery on 1 June 1799. (Account Book 1797--1803, p. 22).
Binding Early C19th mottled calf, gold-tooled spine, gilt-rolled borders, black morocco spine-label. Bound by J. Wingrave for 7s., 31 August 1804. (Archive 7/3/56; entry in Spiers Box. Misc. Booksellers dated 15 September 1804).
Reference Number 258
Additional Names J.$Wingrave, bookbinder; Rennell, James (1742--1830); Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa
Travels in the interior districts of Africa: performed under the direction and patronage of the African Association, in the years 1795, 1796, and 1797. By Mungo Park, surgeon. With an appendix, containing geographical illustrations of Africa. By Major Rennell.
London (Place), printed by W. Bulmer and Co. for the author; and sold by G. and W. Nicol,, 1799.
xxviii, 372, xcii, [6] p., frontis. port., [8] engr. pl. (some fold.) : illus. (music) ; 26.7 cm. (4º)
This was the first book to describe the interior of Africa, of which almost nothing was then known apart from the north-east region and the coastal areas. It was an immediate success, translated into most European languages, and remains a classic of travel literature. The list of subscribers (pp. xxi--xxviii) includes the name of John Soane, Esq. Three of the plates are maps, one hand-coloured. The 'Appendix' has separate title-page, pagination, and register. Includes three leaves of a 'Postscript. ... Song from Mr. Park's Travels', with words by the Duchess of Devonshire and music by G.G. Ferrari, bound in various places in different copies. ESTC n13836. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography gives many details of Park's explorations during which he stayed with slavers but also spent lots of time with Africans and suffered great privations. One paragraph in DNB entry is striking: What was to disconcert (and still disconcerts) some readers was the detached way in which Park wrote not only on slavery but on the slave trade (in which indeed he had been a participant), presenting them without condemnation as established social institutions. Of the proposed abolition of the trade, then an active political issue, his only comment was, 'my opinion is, the effect would neither be so extensive or beneficial as many wise and worthy persons fondly expect' (Travels, 298).
Copy Notes Paid 1 guinea as a subscription on 4 April 1799, with the balance of 10s. 6d. paid to the bookseller on delivery on 1 June 1799. (Account Book 1797--1803, p. 22).
Binding Early C19th mottled calf, gold-tooled spine, gilt-rolled borders, black morocco spine-label. Bound by J. Wingrave for 7s., 31 August 1804. (Archive 7/3/56; entry in Spiers Box. Misc. Booksellers dated 15 September 1804).
Reference Number 258
Additional Names J.$Wingrave, bookbinder; Rennell, James (1742--1830); Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa