Facets

1519

#9962

Summa de Geografia que trata de todas las partidas e provincias del mundo en especial de las indias e trata largamente del arte del marcar...

This was the first book on the Americas printed in Spanish. "Enciso was the first conquistadore to take up his pen with educational intent." In this general treatise on geography Enciso included a discussion of the fa…

1553

#8982

Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouuées en Grece, Asie, Iudée, Egypte, Arabie, & autres pays estranges, redigées en trois livres.

Belon was first trained as an apothecary, and worked in that capacity for the bishop of Clermont, Guillaume Duprat. Around 1542 he studied medicine In Paris, and obtained a licentiate in medicine, though he never took…

1557

#10726

Raiss Büchlein…mit güten Mitteln der Artzney Begegnen Soll.

The first pocket reference for travelers by land or sea, dealing with topics such as infected genitalia, frostbite, fouled drinking water, shipboard stench, the best boots and shoes. The recipes in this work comprised…

1582

#7327

Aigentlich Beschreibung der Raiss, so er vor diser Zeit gegen Auffgang inn die Morgenländer, fürnemlich Syriam, Iudaeam, Arabiam, Mesopotamiam, Babyloniam, Assyriam, Armeniam etc....

Rauwolf provided the first modern descriptions of the flora of the area east of the Levantine coast. He was also the first to describe the riparian flora of the Euphrates, and the first European to publish an account …

1582

#7565

Aliquot notae in Garciae aromatum historiam. Eiusdem descriptiones nonnullarum stirpium, & aliarum exoticarum rerum, que à generoso viro Franciso Drake quite Anglo, & his obseruatae sunt, qui eum in long illa nauigatione, qu proximis annis vniuersum orbem circumiuits ....

Botany of the circumnavigation of Sir Francis Drake. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1590

#2244

Historia natural y moral de las Indias.

One of the earliest detailed and realistic descriptions of the New World. Acosta hypothesized that the indigenous peoples of Latin America had migrated from Asia. He also divided the native peoples into three barbaria…

1640

#12403

A paradox. Prooving, that the inhabitants of the isle called Madagascar, or St. Laurence, ... are the happiest people in the world. Whereunto is prefixed, a briefe and true description of that island: the nature of the climate, and condition of the inhabitants, and their speciall affection to the English above other nations. With most probable arguments of a hopefull and fit plantation of a colony there, in respect of the fruitfulnesse of the soyle, the benignity of the ayre, and the relieving of our English ships, both to and from the East-Indies.

“Hamond, author and explorer, published a translation of Ambroise Paré’s ‘Methode de traicter les Playes faictes par Harquebuses et aultres batons a feu,’ 1617, 4to. He was in the service of the East India Company, an…

1671

#10124

Voyage des pais septentrionaux: Dans lequel se void [sic] les moeurs, maniere de vivre, & superstitions des Norweguiens, Lappons, Kiloppes, Borandiens, Syberiens, Samojedes, Zembliens, & Islandois, enrichi de plusieurs figures.

Translated into English as A new voyage into the northern countries being a discription of the manners, customs, superstition, buildings, and habits of the Norwegians, Laponians, Kilops, Borandians, Siberians, Samojed…

1672

#13878

New-Englands rarities discovered: In birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, and plants of that country. Together with the physical and chyrurgical remedies wherewith the natives constantly use to cure their distempers, wounds, and sores; also A perfect description of an Indian squa, in all her bravery, with a poem not improperly conferr'd upon her; lastly, a chronological table of the most remarkable passage in that country amongst the English.

Josselyn's books give some of the earliest and most complete information on New England flora and fauna in colonial times, and his outlook was later praised by Henry Thoreau, among others. Digital facsimile from Biodi…

1673

#7328

A Brief Account of Some Travels in Hungaria, Servia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Friuli.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1674

#13261

An account of two voyages to New-England. Wherein you have the setting out of a ship, with the charges; The prices of all necessaries for furnishing a planter and his family at his first coming: a description of the countrey [sic], natives, and creatures; with their merchantil [sic] and physical use; the government of the countrey as it is now possessed by the English, &c. A large chronological table of the most remarkable passages, from the first discovering of the continent of America, to the year 1673.

Josselyn first visited America in 1638-39 and returned from 1663 to 1671. His second and more extensive book includes an herbal, with numerous botanical as well as medical and surgical descriptions, and is considered …

1676

#13870

Relations historiques et curieuses de voyages, en Allemagne, Angleterre, Hollande, Boheme, Suisse, &c.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Translated into English as Travels thro' Germany, Bohemia, Swisserland, Holland, and other parts of Europe : describing the most considerable citys and the pal…

1677

#9394

An account of several travels through a great part of Germany: In four journeys I. From Norwich to Colen. II. From Colen to Vienna, with a particular description of that imperial city. III. From Vienna to Hamburg. IV. From Colen to London. Wherein the mines, baths, and other curiosities of those parts are treated of. Illustrated with sculptures.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1685

#11128

Traité des maladies particulières aux pays orientaux, et dans la route, et de leurs Remèdes. Par M.C.D.D.E.M.

At the age of 17, Dellon, who is sometimes referred to as Gabriel Dellon, embarked as second surgeon aboard the ship La Force. He arrived at Darman, in the Portuguese Indies, in 1673, where he was doctor to Luis de Me…

1698

#8592

A journey to Paris in the year 1698.

Includes observations of natural history collections, estates and libraries of Parisians, and commentary on science, art, food, wine, medicine, and more. Late in 1697, William Bentinck, Lord Portland, was sent on a di…

1699

#13876

Voyages de François Bernier ... contenant la description des états du grand mogol. Où il est traité des richesses, des forces, de la justice, & des causes principales de la decadence des etats de l'Asie, & de plusieurs évenemens considerables. Et où l'on voit comment l'or & l'argent, après avoir circulé dans le monde, passent dans l'Hindoustan, d'où ils ne reviennent plus.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1702

#13831

Topographical descriptions: With historico-political, and medico-physical observations: Made in two several voyages through most parts of Europe.

Travels in Netherlands, France, Savoy, and Piedmont. A second volume containing records of tours in Italy, and a third containing tous in Germany, Hunary, Denmark and Sweden, were planned but were never published.

1703

#8870

A description of the Western Islands of Scotland.: Containing a full account of their situation, extent, soils, product, harbours, bays, tides, anchoring places, and fisheries. The ancient and modern government, religion and customs of the inhabitants, particularly of their druids, heathen temples, monasteries, churches, chappels, antiquities, monuments, forts, caves, and other curiosities of art and nature. Of their admirable and expeditious way of curing most diseases by simples of their own product. A particular account of the second sight, or faculty of forseeing things to come, by way of vision, so common among them. A brief hint of methods to improve trade in that country, both by sea and land. With a new map of the whole, describing the harbours, anchoring places, and dangerous rocks, for the benefit of sailers. To which is added a brief description of the Isles of Orkney, and Schetland.

Martin, who graduated MD from Leiden, included throughout his book detailed and non-judgmental documentation of folk medicine practices and ethnobotanic remedies then in use in the region. Digital facsimile of the 170…

1707 –1725

#9914

A voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica: With the natural history of the herbs and trees, four-footed beasts, fishes, birds, insects, reptiles, &c. of the last of those islands; to which is prefix'd, an introduction, wherein is an account of the inhabitants, air, waters, diseases, trade, &c. of that place, with some relations concerning the neighbouring continent, and islands of America. Illustrated with figures of the things described, which have not been heretofore engraved. In large copper-plates as big as the life. 2 vols.

As a youth Sloane collected objects of natural history and other curiosities. This led him to the study of medicine, which he went to London, where he studied botany, materia medica, surgery and pharmacy. His collecti…

1709

#12474

A new voyage to Carolina; Containing the exact description and natural history of that country: Together with the present state thereof. And a journal of a thousand miles, travel'd Thro' several nations of Indians. Giving a particular account of Their customs, manners, &c.

Lawson, who characterized himself as "Surveyer-General of North Carolina" explored the interior of colonial North Carolina, South Carolina and George. He was guided by American Indians and made careful note of vegetat…

1712

#6374.11

Amoentitatum exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum fasciculi V.

Kaempfer’s illustrated accounts of Japanese acupuncture and moxibustion are among the best of the 17th century. They appeared for the first time in the above work and were translated into English in his The History of…

1714 –1725

#13449

Journal des observations physiques, mathematiques et botaniques, faites par l'ordre du roi sur les côtes orientales de l'Amerique meridionale, & dans les Indes occidentales, depuis l'année 1707, jusques en 1712. 3 vols.

Includes in vols. 2 and 3: Histoire des plantes medecinales qui sont le plus en usage aux royaumes de l'Amerique meridionale, du Perou & du Chily, : composée sur les lieux par ordre du Roy, dans les années 1709. 1710.…

1717

#12271

Relation d'un voyage du Levant fait par ordre du Roy: Contenant l'histoire ancienne et moderne de plusieurs isles de l'Archipel, de Constantinople, des côtes de la mer Noire, de l'Arménie, de la Géorgie, des frontières de Perse et de l'Asie mineure. Avec les plans des villes & des lieux considérables; La genie, les moeurs, le commerce & la religion des différens peuples qui les habitent; et l'explication des médailles & ses monuments antiques. Enrichie de descriptions & de figures d'un grand nombre de plantes rares, divers animaux; et de plusieurs observations touchant l'histoire naturelle.

Digital facsimile of the 1717 edition from BnF Gallica at this link. Translated into English, London, 1718 as: A Voyage into the Levant: Perform'd by Command of the Late French King. Containing The Antient and Modern …

1719

#13538

Caput Bonae Spei hodiernum, das ist: vollständige Beschreibung des africanischen Vorgebürges der Guten Hofnung. Worinnen in dreyen Theilen abgehandelt wird, wie es heut zu Tage, nach seiner Situation und Eigenschaft aussiehet; ingleichen was ein Natgur-Forscher in den dreyen Reichen der Natur....

Includes the first study of the natural history of the Cape region of South Africa. Translated into English by "Mr. Medley" as The present state of the Cape of Good-Hope. 2 vols., London, 1738-31. Digital facsimile of…

1735

#8483

A voyage to Guinea, Brasil and the West Indies; in His Majesty's ships, the Swallow and Weymouth: Describing the several islands and Settlements, viz, Madeira, the Canaries, Cape de Verd, Sierraleon, Sesthos, Cape Apollonia, Cabo Corso, and others on the Guinea coast; Barbadoes, Jamaica, &c. in the West-Indies; the colour, diet, languages, habits, manners, customs, and religions of the respective natives, and inhabitants. With remarks on the gold, ivory, and slave-trade; and on the winds, tides and currents of the several coasts.

Atkins, surgeon on the voyage, included information about the slave trade and the natural history of the Gold Coast. "Atkins describes the manatee accurately, and tells much about fetish worship. He shows that there w…

1737

#12473

The natural history of North Carolina. With an account of the trade, manners and customs of the Christian and Indian inhabitants. Illustrated with copper-plates, whereon are curiously engraved the map of the country, several strange beasts, birds, fishes, snakes, insects, trees, and plants, &c.

Brickell accompanied provincial governor George Burrington to North Carolina in 1724, remaining in the region for six years and becoming one of the first medical doctors in North Carolina. Brickell took the material o…

1738

#8853

Vol. 1: Travels through the low countries, Germany, Italy and France, with curious observations, natural, topographical, moral, physiological, & c. Also, A catalogue of plants, found spontaneously growing in those parts, and their virtues. Vol. 2: A collection of curious travels and voyages. Containing Dr. Leonhart Rauwolff's journey into the eastern countries, viz. Syria, Palestine, or the Holy Land, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Chaldea, & c. Translated from the original high Dutch, by Nicholas Staphorst. And also, travels into Greece, Asia, Minor, Egypt, Arabia Felix, Petraea, Ethiopia, the Red Sea, & c. Collected from the observations of Mons. Belon, Prosper Alpinus, Dr. Huntingdon, Mr. Vernon, Sir George Wheeler, Dr. Smith, Mr. Greaves, and others. To which are added three catalogues of such trees, shrubs and herbs as grow in the Levant

This is the second and best edition in 2 volumes of works that were first issued separately in 1673 and 1693 respectively. For Rauwolf see No. 7327. Digital facsimile of the 1738 edition from the Medical Heritage Libr…

1751

#7677

Observations on the inhabitants, climate, soil, rivers, productions, animals, and other matter worthy of notice. Made by Mr. John Bartram, in his travels from Pensilvania to Onondago, Oswego and the Lake Ontario, in Canada. To which is annex'd, a curious account of the cataracts at Niagara, by Mr. Peter Kalm....

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

1751 –1752

#12873

Journal du voyage fait par ordre du Roi, a l'équateur, servant d'introduction historique a la mesure des trois premiers degrés du méridien. Supplément au Journal historique du voyage a l'Équateur: et au livre de la Mesure des trois premiers degrés du méridien, servant de réponse à quelques objections. 2 vols.

La Condamine's journal of his ten year long voyage to South America, the scientific results of which included proof that the earth is a spheroid flattened at the poles. Other scientific observations including botanica…

1753 –1761

#9923

En Resa til Norra America. 2 vols.

Between 1748 and 1749, Kalm, a Swedish naturalist and student of Linnaeus, traveled throughout northeast America, specifically in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Canada, surveying the countryside, an…

1756

#5290

Natural history of Aleppo and parts adjacent.

Includes (Chap, iv) a good account of “Aleppo boil”, which Russell found to be endemic in Aleppo. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1756

#11158

The use of sea voyages in medicine.

Gilchrist recommended sea voyages as treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis and other diseases. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. Much expanded French translation by Edme-Claude Bourru as Utilité des voy…

1756

#13448

The civil and natural history of Jamaica. In three parts, containing 1. An accurate description of that Island, its situation and soil; with a brief account of its former and present state, government, revenues, produce, and trade. II. A history of the natural productions, including the various sorts of native fossils, perfect and imperfect vegetables, quadrupedes, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects; with their properties and uses in mechanics, diet, and physic. III. An account of the nature of climate in general, and their different effects upon the human body; with a detail of the diseases arising from this source, particularly within the tropics....illustrated with fifty copper-plates...in natural size....

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1757

#9510

Fredric Hasselquists ... Iter Palæstinum, eller Resa til Heliga Landet, förrättad ifrån år 1749 til 1752, med beskrifningar, rön, anmärkningar, öfver de märkvärdigaste naturalier, på Hennes Kongl. Maj:ts befallning.

A disciple of Linnaeus, who complained about the lack of information regarding the natural history of Palestine, Hasselquist undertook a journey to that region provide further information. Having raised funds sufficie…

1757

#11525

Histoire naturelle du Sénégal. Coquillages. Avec la relation abrégée d'un voyage fait en ce pays, pendant les années 1749, 50, 51, 52 & 53.

Adanson's voyage and explorations in Senegal, including the Island of Goree and the River Senegal. The second part is a general survey of the living mollusks he found in Senegal. His classification of mollusks was ori…

1758

#12396

A genuine narrative of the deplorable deaths of the English gentlemen and others who were suffocated in the Black Hole in Fort-William, at Calcutta, in the Kingdom of Bengal, in the night succeeding the 20th day of June, 1756, in a letter to a friend.

Holwell was a survivor of the Black Hole of Calcutta in Fort William, Calcutta , a poorly ventilated dungeon measuring 4.30 × 5.50 ⁠metres (14 × 18 ⁠⁠feet), in which troops of Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, hel…

1758

#13545

Petri Loefling... Iter Hispanicum, eller Resa til spanska länderna uti Europa och America förrättad infrän år 1751 til år, 1756, med Beskrifningar och ron öfver de märkvärdigaste växyer, utgifven efter dess frånfälle af Carl Linnaeus.

Edited by Carl Linnaeus after the early death of Pehr Löfling, who Linnaeus considered his most gifted disciple. This is the account of Löfling's mostly botanically oriented researches through Spain, Portugal, and nor…

1761

#7669

History of the travels and adventures of the Chevalier John Taylor, ophthalmiater; pontifical imperial and royal to the Kings of Poland, Denmark, Sweden, the electors of the Holy Empire, the princes of Saxegotha, Mecklenburg, Anspach, Brunswick, Parma, Modena... Addressed to his only son.

1763

#7363

Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to various parts of Asia in 1716, 1719, 1722 &c. 2 vols.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1763

#8288

Nicolai Josephi Jacquin Selectarum stirpium Americanarum historia, in qua ad Linneanum systema determinatae descriptaeque sistuntur plantse illae, quas in insulis Martinica, Jamaica, Domingo, aliisque, et in vicinae continentis parte, observavit rariores; : adjectis iconibus in solo natali delineatis. 2 vols.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1766 –1767

#7365

Travels through France and Italy. Containing observations on character, customs, religion, government, police, commerce, arts, and antiquities. With a particularly description of the town, territory, and climate of Nice: to which is added a register of the weather, kept during a residence of eighteen months in that city. 2 vols.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1766

#12496

Travels through France and Italy. Containing observations on character, customs, religion, government, police commerce, arts, and antiquities. With a particular description of the town, territory, and climate of Nice: To which is added a register of the weather, kept during a residence of eighteen months in that city. 2 vols.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. "After suffering the loss of his only child, 15-year-old Elizabeth, in April 1763, Smollett left England in June of that year. Together with his wife, he traveled acro…

1771 –1776

#9564

Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs. 3 vols.

"Between 1768 and 1774, he [Pallas] led an expedition to central Russian provinces, Povolzhye, Urals, West Siberia, Altay, and Transbaikal, collecting natural history specimens for the academy. He explored the Caspian…

1771

#12472

Travels through that part of North America formerly called Louisiana by Mr. Bossu, ... Translated from the French by John Reinhold Forster, F.A.S. Illustrated with notes relative chiefly to natural history to which is added by the translator a systematic catalogue of all the known plants of English North America, or a Flora Americae Septentrionalis together with an abstract of the most useful and necessary articles contained in Peter Loefling's travels through Spain and Cumana in South America referred to the pages of the original Swedish edition. 2 vols.

This work is a series of 21 letters that Bossu wrote to the Marquis de L’Estrade describing his life and travels in the vast Louisiana country from 1751 to 1762. His ventures ranged from Fort Chartres, in present-day …

1772

#7660

The naturalist's and traveller's companion. Containing instructions for discovering and preserving objects of natural history....

Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link. Digital facsimile of the corrected, enlarged, and more elegant second edition of 1774 from the Internet Archive at this link.

1776

#3714

The method taken for preserving the health of the crew of H.M.S. the Resolution during her late voyage round the world. In: Sir John Pringle, A discourse upon some late improvements in the means for preserving the health of mariners.

Following the scurvy-preventing suggestions of James Lind, Cook lost only one man to disease on his second voyage from 1768-1771. Reprinted in Phil. Trans., 1776, 66, 402-06. See No. 2156.

1776

#11996

Voyage à la Nouvelle Guinée, dans lequel on trouve la description des lieux, des observations physiques & morales, & des détails relatifs à l'histoire naturelle dans le regne animal & le regne végétal. Enrichi de cent vingt figures en taille douce.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

1776

#12477

Characteres generum plantarum, quas in itinere ad insulas maris Australis, collegerunt, descripserunt, delinearunt, annis 1772-1775.

This account of botanical discoveries made by the Forsters in Australia and New Zealand on Cook's second voyage was one of the earliest scientific publications resulting from that voyage. Specimens were illustrated on…

1777

#13764

Bref rörande en resa til Island MDCCLXXII.

Von Troil’s compilation is the only contemporary printed book steming from Sir Joseph Banks’s pioneering scientfic expedition to Iceland, Banks's first and only expedition as indisputable leader. Having recently retur…

1778

#7564

Observations made during a voyage round the world, on physical geography, natural history, and ethic philosophy. Especially on 1. The earth and its strata, 2. Water and the ocean, 3. The atmosphere, 4. The changes of the globe, 5. Organic bodies, and 6. The human species.

The natural history of Captain James Cook's second voyage in the Pacific; Forster and his son Georg were appointed naturalists to the voyage after Joseph Banks withdrew from the position. Digital facsimile from Google…