Description de L'Afrique, Contenant Les Noms, La Situation & Les Confins de Toutes ses Parties, Leurs Rivieres, Leurs Villes & Leurs Habitations, Leurs Plantes & Leurs Animaux; Les Moeurs, Les Coûtumes, La Langue, Les Richesses, La Religion & Le Gouvernement de Ses Peuples

Amsterdam: Wolfgang, Waesberge, Boom & van Someren, 1686. First Thus. First French edition. Folio in fours (37cm). Contemporary mottled calf, spine divided into seven compartments, each tooled in gilt, all edges sprinkled red; plain endpapers; [vi],534,[22]pp; engraved title page, 26 (of 42) double-page line-engraved plates, 55 in-text line engravings. Lacking 17 maps and plates, including the large folding map of Africa. Bookseller's embossed stamp of F. R. Thorold, Johannesburg, to front free endpaper. Text complete, collating 2o: π1 *2 A-3Z4 4A2, signed $1-3 (2K3 not signed). Generally tight with minor edgewear, lower front joint starting to split, very occasional spots of foxing but overall clean: a sound but obviously defective copy.

The only French translation of this important 1668 text on Africa, considered authoritative in its day despite the fact that its Dutch author never visited Africa (instead relying on primary accounts of voyages). Extensively illustrated with depictions of people, cities, flora, and fauna; this copy lacking almost all the maps, but serviceable.