Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2004 Issue
Voyages And More From The Antiquariaat Forum
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The mutiny on the Bounty is probably the best-known mutiny ever, thanks to the 1930s novel and movie of that name. Here's the real story, written by Captain Bligh himself. The title is A Narrative of the Mutiny on Board His Majesty's Ship Bounty. Bligh recounts the insubordination, and the harrowing escape and survival he and a few loyal seamen managed. Bligh's tale, naturally, is far more sympathetic to the Captain than the book and movie version which would appear a century and a half later. Item 5 is a 1790 first edition. EU11,500 (US $14,673).
Finding a Northwest Passage was something of a hopeless obsession for voyagers for over a century. There just wasn't an easy way. Locating a Northeast Passage to India was even harder. Give credit to Constantine Phipps for making the attempt. The voyage never got anywhere close to India, being stopped by ice in the area of Spitsbergen Island. However, they did add much to the world's scientific knowledge of the polar region. The book is A Voyage Towards the North Pole, and was published in 1774, a year after the trip took place. EU4,000 (US $5,106).
William Harvey is responsible for one of the most important discoveries of human anatomy and medical science, the circulation of blood. At the time (early 1600s), the belief was that the lungs, not the heart, moved the blood around. It was also believed that the body consumed the blood, rather than it being a closed, circulatory system designed to bring nutrients to the body. Harvey's extensive experiments on human cadavers and live animals established the nature of the circulatory system, though it would take several decades for the medical practice to fully accept his ideas. Item 22 is a second edition of Harvey's De motu cordis & sanguinis in animalibus, anatomica exercitation, published in 1639. EU40,000 (US $51,058).
Now for something different. Item 60 is Thomas Wilson's The Correct Method of German & French Waltzing. This is an 1817 second edition of this book of instructions complete with illustrations on how not to trip over your partner's toes. You should buy this book for your children. They don't know how to waltz. EU3,610 (US $4,600).
