Pieter de Marees's Beschrijvinghe ende Historische verhael vant Gout koninckrijck van Guinea - Rare 1617 Colijn Dutch Edition - Oblong Octavo

"Beschrijvinghe ende Historische verhael vant Gout koninckrijck van Guinea, anders de Gout-custe de Mina genaemt leggende in het deel van Africa..."

-Pieter de Marees

-Amsterdam: Michiel Colijn, 1617

-Oblong  8vo (landscape format)

-Title-page with large engraved allegory of Africa (woman with cornucopia and crocodile for the Nile), 

-Later vellum binding.

-99 (of 104) with 5 pages supplied in facsimile (1E1, 1G1, 1K4, 1L1 and 2C1)

-19 (of 20) illustrations with one supplied in facsimile

Second edition of Pieter de Marees’s famous Description and Historical Account of the Gold Kingdom of Guinea — one of the earliest and most detailed first-hand European accounts of West Africa, especially the region of present-day Ghana. De Marees, a Dutch trader, provides a rich ethnographic and natural historical record: he describes the peoples, customs, religious practices, family structures, trade networks, and the flora and fauna of the region. His work went beyond mercantile interests to attempt a sociological view of African society, making it an indispensable early European source.

The title-page allegory of Africa would have been immediately recognisable to contemporary readers: a crocodile for the Nile, symbol of danger and mystery, and a woman representing the fertility and abundance of the continent.

The oblong octavo format was typical of Dutch vernacular travel literature intended for a wide readership, but as such copies were heavily read and worn.

 Complete copies are now uncommon on the market.