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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Denis Joachim Collection
• Sale Date:
  19 Jun 2016 ~ 2pm - Session 1: Lots 1 - 321
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 10am - Session 2: Lots 322 - 480
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 2pm - Session 3: Lot 481 - 688
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 6pm - Session 4: Lots 689 - 818
• Lot #:
  91
• Lot Description:
  Vairasse d’Allais, Denis. Histoire des Sevarambes, peuples qui habitent une Partie du troisième Continent
  communément appellé la Terre Australe. Contenant une Relation du Gouvernement, des Moeurs, de la Religion, & du Langage, de cette Nation, inconnue jusques à present aux Peuples de l’Europe. Two volumes in one, duodecimo, titles printed in black and red, frontispiece illustration in each volume, a fine copy in vellum strictly of the period, all edges sprinkled, minuscule owner’s inscription on the title-pages, the second dated 1702. Amsterdam, Estienne Roger, 1702.
• Notes:
  One of the rarest and most important of the early fictitious voyages. Vairasse takes great trouble in his introduction to establish the authenticity of his narrative, grounding it on real events. The actual loss of the Dutch ship the Vergulde Draeck in 1656 – the name of the hero’s wrecked ship is “The Golden Dragon” – forms the basis of the story but, since no trace of the real Dutch ship was found, Vairasse uses Pelsaert’s account of the Batavia wreck as the basis for his description of the circumstances of the wreck. His deception had some contemporary success: Moors notes that “a reviewer in the Journal des Sçavans failed to realise that the voyage was fictional”. The account of the utopian Sevarambia is carefully elaborated, the philosophical element neatly balanced by adventure and “some very erotic tales revived from the Greeks” (Renard). Decades before its time, Vairasse espouses in this book enlightened principles that emphasised “Deism, Reason, and the full dignity of man… reject[ing] most of what France had stood for from the Huguenot Wars to Louis XIV, and announc[ing] instead the dawn of eighteenth-century Enlightenment and nineteenth-century Liberalism” (Friederich). Davidson, p. 42-3; Friederich, pp. 20-2; Gibson, 782; Hordern House IV, 42; Kroepelien, 16; Mackaness, 5; Mathews, p. 26; Moors, 15 (1716 edition); see Renard Ignis, 6 (1716 edition); Robert, 917.
• Estimate:
  A$1,800 - 2,400
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Books & Manuscripts

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.