Voyages et descouvertures faites en la nouvelle France, depuis l’année 1618. Par le Sieur de Champlain, Cappitaine ordinaire pour le Roy en la Mer du Ponant. Où sont descrits les mœurs, coustumes, habits, façons de guerroyer, chasses, dances, festins, & enterrements de diuers peuples Sauvages, & de plusieurs choses remarquables qui luy sont arrivées audit païs, avec une description de la beauté, fertilité, & temperature d’iceluy.
Paris: Claude Collet, 1620.
Octavo (5 15/16” x 4”, 151mm x 101mm): binder’s blank, ã8 A–T8 V6, binder’s blank [$4 signed; –ã1, ã2]. 166 leaves, pp. [16] (engraved half-title, blank, title, blank, 8pp. dedication to the king, 3pp. preface, copyright) leaves numbered 1–158 to the recto. With 1 folding plate (out of two) and 4 full page engraved plates.
Bound in modern green calf. On the spine, 5 raised bands. “CHAMPLAIN / VOYAGES” gilt to orange morocco in the second panel. Date gilt to the heel. With gilt dentelles and green marbled endpapers. Presented in a slipcase of green card.
Engraved half-title chipped at the extremities and infilled at the gutter. Dampstaining to the lower fore-corner from ã1–a8 (8 leaves). Lacking the first of two folding plates (a settlement depiction) but an older facsimile — evidenced by offsetting from its previous neighbor text to the verso — takes its stead. Scattered marginalia throughout. Bookplate of Ernest E. Keet completed in ink manuscript “10795” to the recto of the first free endpaper. Nautical stamp of the Admiralty Office Library and ink inscription “Ex lib. P. de cardonnel. 1661” to ã1 recto. Manuscript inscription of William Lowth along the fore margin of D7 recto. Inscription to V6 verso obscured by a support leaf.
Samuel de Champlain (1567–1635) came of age in a time of tremendous religious unrest, political chaos, and endemic warfare, due to the civil wars which raged throughout the kingdom of France at the time of his birth. Little is known about the minutiae of his childhood, but his father was a sailor, and Samuel verifiably became a soldier. In the late 1590s, Champlain served in King Henry IV’s army during the Wars of Religion in Brittany. As a quartermaster and, later, a company captain, he developed a reputation for discipline, discretion, and intelligence; secondary literature from the XVII and XVIIIc often describes Champlain during his tour of duty not as a man, but a saint. Following the war and on the cusp of a new century, King Henry IV entrusted the now-revered Champlain with a voyage to the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. Champlain disguised himself as a merchant and spent two years observing fortifications, colonial practices, and the imperial mechanisms of the New World. Though his visit was unofficial, Champlain shared intelligence collected on New Spain with the French court. Perhaps it was this stint in the colonies that spurred a desire to explore lands yet unknown to the Old World.
Throughout the first decade of the XVIIc, Champlain undertook four major voyages to North America (see our first edition example of these expeditions). During his travels, he explored the region of the St. Lawrence River, attempted to colonize Acadia (modern-day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick), and established the permanent colony and trading post of Québec city, which would become the capital of Nouvelle-France. Between 1615 and 1618, Samuel de Champlain led his final major expedition into the interior of New France. The present example details this voyage, which centers around Champlain’s travels to the Great Lakes region, specifically Lake Huron (Mer douce). The journey involved a raid against the Iroquois, during which Champlain was shot in the leg and subsequently spent a bitter winter with the Huron-Wendat tribe on the southeastern shores of Georgian Bay. His misfortune proved intellectually fruitful, as Champlain was able to spend an extended period with the tribes of present-day Canada, developing alliances and recording ethnographic observations. No stranger to Louis XIII’s personal interest in Native customs, Champlain spends much of the account relaying their ceremonies, healing practices, cannabis habits, and sexual culture, perhaps in part to encourage continued patronage. Voyages et descouvertures was first published in 1619 in France and painted an intimate portrayal of indigenous society that not only shaped colonial policy and ideological narratives within the court but influenced the popular imagination of the New World. The present example is the reissue of the 1619 edition, differing only in the date on the letterpress title-page.
The ownership inscription of “P. de cardonnel” likely refers to Pierre de Cardonnel (1614–1667), a French merchant, a printer, and a curious mind. His legacy is primarily known for his annotated copy of Hobbes’s Leviathan that was gifted to him by the Earl of Devonshire. Cardonnel spent his later life in Southampton and London, where the present volume changed hands. A Londoner and clergyman, William Lowth (1660–1732) was the next owner to inscribe.
The Admiralty Office Library, historically part of the British Royal Navy’s administrative complex, was a vital repository of naval knowledge, strategy, and exploration. As a center of research and intelligence, the library supported decision-making during naval conflicts and preserved centuries of maritime heritage for future study.
Ernest “Lee” Keet, a longtime resident of Saranac Lake, New York, comes from a family with deep roots in the Adirondack region, where his ancestors have lived since 1805. An engineer by training and a private equity investor by profession, Keet has maintained and enriched his family’s legacy through active engagement in regional development and cultural preservation. The present example was lot 7 in Christie’s 17 January 2024 sale of the Keet library.
Alden & Landis 620/45; Church 378; Sabin 11837.
Cataloged by G.R. Murdock
Item #GRM0035
Price: $35,000