Two parts in a vol. 8vo, mm. 163x115; Contemporary smooth vellum binding, title written on the spine. Pages [24, including Half title and Title page], 1-256; 257-466, i.e. 464, [40]. Omitted in the numbering p. 177-178. Pictorial frontispiece, dedicatee device, 20 copper plates at full page out text. Slight browning and sign of foxing, restoration on the lower margin of a plate and on the lower margin of the first quire. Restoration on spine.
Very rare first edition illustrated. Angelo Piccardo tells The Congo Journey made between 1683 and 1689 by the Capuchin missionary Jerome Merolla. It Is A valuable source and Fascinating On uses n and customs of the inhabitants, climate, plants and animals of the Congo. The work is accompanied by evocative plates Illustrating the text: BETWEEN THESE particularly curious the one that shows the 'Woman-fish', the author observed in Zaire River, like the sea creatures that poets CALL 'Sirens'. The rich iconography consists in the pictorial frontispiece, the plate with the device of the dedicatee, Cardinal Acciaioli, a unnumbered plate and subsequent plates numbered 1-18, with the plate number 2 repeated; in total there are 22 copper engraved plates.
Brunet, III, 1660; Graesse, IV, 499.