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.

From Prussia to Brazil

ADALBERT, Heinrich Wilhelm, Prince of Prussia; Robert H. SCHOMBURGK and John Edward TAYLOR (translators). 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. Volume I[–II]. London: [Richard and John Edward Taylor for] David Bogue. 1849.

Two volumes in one, 8vo. Contemporary red cloth, central gilt ornament to both boards, borders decorated in blind, flat spine decorated and lettered in gilt, edges gilt, yellow endpapers; vol. I: pp. xvi, 338; vol. II: pp. v, 377; lithographic frontispiece to vol. I, four lithographic folding maps with hand-colouring in outline; sometime rebacked with original spine relaid, slight wear to corners; light toning throughout, some marginal spotting to frontispiece; else a very clean and fresh copy.

First English edition of Prince Adalbert of Prussia’s account of his travels in Brazil, Aus meine Tagebuche 1842–1843, which had first been printed in German for private circulation in 1847; this edition is the first to contain a preface by the polymath and explorer Alexander von Humboldt
(1769–1859).

A grandson of King Frederick William II of Prussia, Prince Adalbert (1811–1873) was a naval expert who consulted several governments and travelled widely. His 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. His account was ‘only designed and printed for private distribution among the Prince’s immediate friends’ (vol. I, p. ix).

Humboldt’s preface is extracted from a letter to one of the translators of this edition, the German-born explorer for Great Britain Robert H. Schomburgk (1804–1865). Humboldt had contributed the preface for the German edition of Schomburgk’s Travels in Guiana and on the Orinoco seven years earlier. Schomburgk was the first European to mention the Waiwai indigenous people, having encountered them on both sides of the border between Brazil and British Guiana; he travelled to British Guiana and the Orinoco river region from 1835 to 1839, and again in 1843.

Publisher and editor John Edward Taylor (1799–1844) – who printed this edition for David Bogue in partnership with his uncle, Richard Taylor – was the founder of the Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian). There are two issues of this edition, one with Humboldt’s name on the title the other one without, however ‘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.

SKU: 2101039