NOUVEAUX VOYAGES: dans l'Amerique Septentrionale, Qui contiennent une Relation des differens Peuples qui y habitent; la nature de leur Gouvernment; leur Commerce, leurs Coutumes, leur Religion, & leur maniere de faire la Guerre. L'interet de Francois & des Anglois dans le Commerce qu'ils font avec ces Nations; l'avantage que l'Angleterre peut retirer dans ce Pais, etent en Guerre avec la France. Le tout enrichi de Cartes & de Figures. Tome Premier.(bound with)MEMOIRES DE L'AMERIQUE SEPTENTRIONALE, OU LA SUITE DES VOYAGES: Qui contiennent la Description d'une grande entendue de pais de ce Continent, l'interet des Francois & des Anglois, leurs Commerces, leurs Navigations, les Moeurs & les Coutumes des Sauvages, &c. Avec un petit Dictionnaire de la Langue du Pais. Les tout enrichi de Cartes & de Figures. Et augmente dans Ie second Tome de la maniere dont les Sauvages se regalent

Author: Lahontan, Louis Armand
Title: NOUVEAUX VOYAGES: dans l'Amerique Septentrionale, Qui contiennent une Relation des differens Peuples qui y habitent; la nature de leur Gouvernment; leur Commerce, leurs Coutumes, leur Religion, & leur maniere de faire la Guerre. L'interet de Francois & des Anglois dans le Commerce qu'ils font avec ces Nations; l'avantage que l'Angleterre peut retirer dans ce Pais, etent en Guerre avec la France. Le tout enrichi de Cartes & de Figures. Tome Premier.(bound with)MEMOIRES DE L'AMERIQUE SEPTENTRIONALE, OU LA SUITE DES VOYAGES: Qui contiennent la Description d'une grande entendue de pais de ce Continent, l'interet des Francois & des Anglois, leurs Commerces, leurs Navigations, les Moeurs & les Coutumes des Sauvages, &c. Avec un petit Dictionnaire de la Langue du Pais. Les tout enrichi de Cartes & de Figures. Et augmente dans Ie second Tome de la maniere dont les Sauvages se regalent
Publication: A La Haye (The Hague): Chez les freres L'Honore, Marchands Libraires, [c. 1704], 1709
Edition: Second Edition

Description: Hardcover. TWO VOLUMES BOUND IN ONE. IN FRENCH. CONTAINS TWELVE OF TWENTY-FOUR PLATES.
12mo, 6.5 in. x 3.75 in, pp. [8], 1-280, 3-222, [18]. Light tan quarter calf over paste-paper boards. Gilt frame and title on original gilt-outlined burgundy panel to rebacked spine. Rubbing to extremities. Corners showing. Spine label worn but legible. Newer endpapers. Sewn-in silk ribbon. Unmarked interior save booksellers' pencilled notes.

Misbound: Title page at front is actually the title page for the second title (MEMOIRES DE L'AMERIQUE); the title page of the first title ("NOUVEAUX VOYAGES") is missing. The text for both volumes, including the Algonquin dictionary ("Dictionaire de la Langue des Sauvages"), is complete.

Volume I: Illustrated with six plates, one of which fold-out. Lacks frontispiece and seven additional plates, title page, all pages before A6, and page 35/36.
Volume II: Illustrated with six plates, three of which fold-out. Lacks frontispience and six additional plates, and pages before A2 (except title page which prefaces the first volume). Very Good.

The second volume contains the "Dictionaire de la Langue des Sauvages," an early Algonquin and Huron dictionary.

"The two volumes--Voyages and Memoires--were apparently, in early editions sold both separately and in sets. This explains the frequent appearance of individual volumes and of sets not uniform and often with different imprints and dates. As collectors today insist on the set-form, the work is here so treated ... Lahontan's narrative, of considerable value when confined to his actual sojourneyings in the Lake region, was unfortunately disfigured by his inserting and account of a pretended trip west of the Mississippi, about as convincing as the legends of the sea-serpent."--Howes L25

"Baron de Lahontan served ten years in the French military in Canada, was involved in the Indian Wars, and commanded several posts in the west. He traveled extensively in the Wisconsin and Minnesota region and the upper Mississippi Valley. Upon his return to Europe he wrote this enormously popular travelogue. In it he embellished his knowledge of the geography of the Great Lakes region, invented Indian tribes, and created several fictions, particularly the River Longue, which he claimed extended from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Over twenty editions of his book were published between 1703 and 1741, including editions in French, English, Dutch and German. The immense popularity of the book resulted in his distorted cartography being accepted by several eminent cartographers who incorporated the "Lahontan" concepts into most 18th century maps. "Although much of the work has been condemned as over-imaginative, it did influence the subsequent growth of primitivism in France and England, as reflected in the works of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Jonathan Swift, and others. For example, he tells of a tribe which he calls Essanapes, who worshiped the sun, the moon, and the stars. Beyond the Essanapes lived the Gnascitares, who lived on the shore of a great lake, and upon this lake were canoes rowed by 200 oarsmen. They had buildings three storeys high and fought battles with the Spaniards in New Mexico. The great king of this country lived in a royal palace waited upon by hundreds of servants. To add weight to this account Lahontan actually drew a map of the region, now located within the boundaries of Nebraska and South Dakota" - Howgego V1-L-54.

Seller ID: 86692

Subject: Americana