ADALBERT, Prince of Prussia. Travels of His Royal Highness Prince Adalbert of Prussia, in the South of Europe and in Brazil, with a Voyage up the Amazon and the Xingú. Translated by Sir Robert H. Schomburgk and John Edward Taylor. London, David Bogue, 1849.
Two volumes in one, 8vo. Contemporary red cloth, spine ornamented and lettered in gilt, covers ornamented in gilt and blind, all edges gilt, yellow endpapers; pp. xvi, 338; v, 377, lithographic frontispiece, four lithographic folding maps with colouring in outline; rebacked, using the original backstrip, wear to corners; apart from marginal foxing to frontispiece and very light toning a clean and fresh copy.
Scarce first English edition, preface by Alexander von Humboldt, after the first edition, German, limited to 100 copies. Adalbert von Preußen (1811–1873), was a naval expert consulted several governements and travelled widely. Adalbert's travel diary gives a vivid picture of Brazil during the early 1840s, with observations on trade and economy, wildlife (including hunting occasionally) and vegetation, encounters with indigenous peoples, and rambles in the Amazon basin.
There are two issues of this edition, one with Humboldt's name on the title the other one without. 'The two issues differ in no other way' (Borba de Moraes).
Sabin 162; Borba de Moraes p. 14 (calling for one map only); many copies contain only three maps.
#2101039