Lot 52. MALASPINA, Alejandro; NOVO y COLSON, Pedro (editor).

First edition of the official account of the scientific expedition of Malaspina and Bustamante y Guerra of 1789 to 1794, which made extensive explorations of the California and Northwest coasts. The account, edited from Malaspina’s papers by Novo y Colson, did not appear until nearly a century after the expedition, though it was ‘Spain’s greatest scientific voyage of exploration to the South Seas in the eighteenth century’ and is considered by some to be ‘as great as those of La Perouse of Captain Cook’ (Hill).

First edition. 4to, [8], [xxxxii], [682], [6]pp., frontispiece portrait, 6 etched plates, folding map (tears repaired), contemporary morocco-backed marbled boards, a little worn and rubbed, light toning to text.

[Cowan p412; Ferguson 12206; Hill 1068; Howes M235; Palau 147592.2. ]