Relation Abregee D'un Voyage Fait Dans L'interieur De L'amerique Meridionale. Depuis La Cote De La Mer du Sud, Jusqu'aux Cotes du Bresil & De La Guiane, En Descendant La Riviere Des Amazones [Voyage made within the Inland Parts of South-America . . .]

8vo [20.5 x 13 cm]; xvi, 216, [iv, privege du roi] pp, folding engraved map, errata. contemporary full tree calf, gilt spine title lettering on leather label, gilt spine decorations, all edges gilted, marbled endpapers, corners and spine end worn, small inkstamp on title page, interior quite clean and fine, cover very good. A picture of t Sabin 38484. A French-Spanish expedition was sent to South America in 1736, to measure a degree of latitude in the area near Quito where the equator crossed, to determine the size and shape of the earth. The ten year expedition proved that the earth is flattened at the Poles. La Condamine returned by crossing Brazil via the Amazon. His narrative of his journey was of great importance, because for the first time the long course of the Amazon was traversed by a man of science capable of making astronomic observations, and determining longitudes.' [Borba de Moraes, I, 446] The fine engraved map of the Amazon and its tributaries accompanying the text was drawn by La Condamine himself, and is the first map in which the latitudes were observed and shown on the map. Cox ii, 272. Hill 168.