Lot 3180: KOLB, PETER

(1675-1726).
THE PRESENT STATE OF THE CAPE OF GOOD-HOPE: CONTAINING A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE SEVERAL NATIONS OF THE HOTTENTOTS. LONDON: W[ILLIAM] INNYS, 1731

2 volumes, 8vo (201 x 115mm.), xviii, [8], 365, [3]; xviii, [2], 363, [1]pp., illustration: (volume 1) engraved frontispiece, 17 engraved plates (numbered I-XII and XIII-XIV and 4 unnumbered plates); (volume 2) engraved frontispiece and 10 plates (numbered I-IX and 2 unnumbered plates), folding map, binding: contemporary mottled calf gilt, spine gilt in compartments, light and dark brown morocco lettering-pieces, some gatherings browned, light spotting, a lettering-piece missing from volume 2, binding rubbed

LITERATURE

Mendelssohn (1957) I, 844; Mendelssohn (1979) III, 7

NOTE

first english edition. Kolb was a Dutch astronomer who arrived at the Cape in June 1705 and stayed until 1713. Although condemned by later historians for the laziness of his research and gullibility when speaking with and about the Hottentots, his writing on the country's flora and fauna remained unsurpassed for many years. The present adaptation by Guido Medley dispenses with many of Kolb's more platitudinous passages.