R. Père Labat. Voyage du Chevalier Des Marchais en Guinée, Isles Voisines, Et a Cayénne, Fait En 1725, 1726 & 1727... (Total: 4 Items)

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First Edition of Labat's Travels in Africa

R. Père Labat. Voyage du Chevalier Des Marchais en Guinée, Isles Voisines, Et a Cayénne, Fait En 1725, 1726 & 1727. Paris: Chez Pierre Prault, 1730.

First edition. Four octavo volumes. 381; 364; 350; Volume IV pages numbered 345-681. Thirty-one engraved plates and maps. Text in French.

Contemporary full calf with gilt titles and decoration on spine. Blind-ruled boards and marbled endpapers. Leather is rubbed and dry with wear to extremities and some insect damage. Front joint of Volume IV has been repaired in distant past. Pages are mildly toned with light, occasional foxing. Bookplate in all volumes. The set in very good condition.

Jean-Baptiste Labat, also known as Père Labat, was a French clergyman and explorer who was additionally an accomplished engineer and mathematician. He modernized the sugar industry and developed new production techniques while living in Martinique. From the Professor John Ralph Willis Collection of Rare Africana.