Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France occidentale, dicte Canada, faits par le S.r de Champlain Xainctongeois, Capitaine pour le Roy en la Marine du Ponant, & toutes les Descouvertes qu’il a faites en ce païs depuis l’an 1603 iusques en l’an 1629... avec ce qui s’est paßé en ladite Nouvelle France en l’année 1631
THE du SAUZAY – du PONT – McKINNEY COPY
Four parts in one. Paris: Chez Louis Sevestre, 1632. Revised edition, second state.
Quarto (8 7/8” x 6 7/16”, 206mm x 163mm): A-B4 2A-C4 D4(±D2.3) E-PP4 QQ2, 3A-Qq4 (3Qq4 blank), 4A4 5A-B4 5C2, 6A-G4 (6G4 blank) [$3 signed; 4A-5B $2 signed; –A1, FF3, 3Z3, 6E3; 3Dd3 mis-signed as “D3”, 3Ee1 mis-signed as “E1”]. 360 leaves, pp. 1-2 3-16 21-308, 31-310, 2 blanks, 41-8, 51-20, 61 62-54, 2 blanks. [≈16, 308, 312, 8, 20, 56] With six in-text engraved plates, two in-text woodcuts and a large folding engraved map.
Bound in contemporary armorial calf. On the boards, a double gilt fillet border. Gilt supralibros of Marc-Antoine du Sauzay. On the spine, four raised bands. In the panels, a gilt central fleuron within a double gilt fillet border. Title (VOYAGES/DE.CHAM.) gilt to the second panel. Gilt rolls to the head- and tail-pieces. Gilt rolls to the edges of the boards. All edges of the text-block speckled red.
Wear along the front hinge, with a patch of wear at the upper edge of the front board. Some cracking and sunning to the spine. Some skinning to the boards. A little rubbing to the extremities. Internally some foxing, with passages of even tanning. Marginal repairs to T4 and 3G3 (affecting a few letters, supplied in manuscript). A few repaired tears to the map, but very good. Effaced bookplates of the Bibliothèque [...] (post-1802) and of the Bibliothèque du Chateau [...] to the front paste-down. Bookseller ticket of Libraire Thomas-Scheler Paris to the front paste-down. Signed bookplate of Bruce McKinney designed and printed by E.M. Ginger.
Samuel de Champlain (1567–1635) was the great French navigator-explorer of Canada, founder of Quebec City and governor of Nouvelle France (the whole of the French colonial territory in America, less Acadia, Louisiana and the cities of Trois-Rivières and Montréal). The first account of his voyages was published in 1613, but the present item is revised all the way to the year before its publication, and is considerably augmented (Church calls this “perhaps the most important of the old editions”). The work did much to encourage the colonization and settlement of New France. The cancellation of D2.3 is found in most copies, being a revision to remove a potentially offensive passage to Cardinal Richelieu, who preceded Champlain as governor. Church notes that several imprints are found, but that the work itself is identical.
The map, stretching as far south as Virginia, is an improvement on Champlain’s 1616 map, with much more detailed and accurate topography. It is also perhaps the first representation of a settlement in New York City: a church at the southern end of a peninsular Manhattan. At the end is Champlain’s guide to navigation, based on his roughly two dozen crossings of the Atlantic.
In addition to Champlain’s accounts, there are parallel (French-“Canadois” i.e., Huron-Wyandot) religious texts by the Jesuit Ledesme: a catechism translated by Brebœuf (SJ), and a series of prayers (Paternoster, Ave Maria, Creed etc.) translated by Massé (SJ).
The binder, Marc-Antoine du Sauzay (Sausay, Sausey), seigneur de Varennes, la Molière et Jarnosse (1622–1708) was a king’s counselor and prévôt des marchands (not unlike the mayor) of Lyon, among other honors. He was just the sort of person who would have had curiosity about or indeed financial interests in Canada. (The supralibros bears the monogram CDS, his father Claude du Sauzay; he used the same stamp but added the laurel wreath as a mark of difference.)
The two effaced bookplates are XIXc; the upper bears the badge of the Légion d’Honneur (the five-pointed Maltese asterisk surmounted by a crown; founded in 1802). The lower is from a chateau library, and is covering some manuscript markings. The libraire Thomas-Scheler (Paris, 6ème arr.) was founded in 1958.
The next known owner was Pierre S. du Pont III (1911–1988; his sale, Christie’s New York, 8 October 1991, lot 39), member of the distinguished Delaware family synonymous with gunpowder and now broader chemical manufacture. Champlain was the nephew and protégé of François Gravé du Pont, but the families are not related. His Christie’s sale was a formidable collection of navigation and voyages.
The book then passed into the collection of Bruce McKinney (Bloomsbury New York, 3 December 2009 “The De Orbe Novo Collection: Exploration in the New World”, lot 69). McKinney founded the Americana Exchange, now Rare Book Hub, the central database of book auction records. The bookplate bears the legend “Liceat Decernere Foro,” let the market decide.
Church 420, Field 268, Harrisse 51, Lande 118 (lacking the map), Sabin 11839, Streeter VI:3621.
Item #6JLR0119
Price: $290,000