Lot 158: WILLYAMS, Cooper (1762-1816). A Voyage Up the Mediterranean in His Majesty's Ship the Swiftsure, One of the Squadron Under the Command of Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson... With a Description of the Battle of the Nile on the First of August 1798

WILLYAMS, Cooper (1762-1816). A Voyage Up the Mediterranean in His Majesty's Ship the Swiftsure, One of the Squadron Under the Command of Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson... With a Description of the Battle of the Nile on the First of August 1798. London: Printed by T. Bensley for J. White, 1802.

4υo (285 x 228 mm). Engraved dedication to the Earl of St. Vincent with armorial vignette, double-page aquatint chart of the Mediterranean with 3 medallion views, 41 aquatint plates including a plan of the Battle of the Nile, engraved by J.C. Stadler after the author. (Some pale offsetting.) 19th-century red morocco, gilt edges (rebacked preserving original spine, some light staining).

FIRST EDITION OF WILLYAMS'S "FINELY PRODUCED BOOK" (Abbey). Topographer and artist, Willyams served as chaplain on board the Swiftsure, part of Sir Horatio Nelson's squadron in the Mediterranean in 1798-99. The work includes "the first, the most particular, and the most authentic account" (DNB) of the Battle of the Nile which took place on 1 August 1798, together with observations from visits to Naples, Florence, Venice, Alexandria, Rhodes, Sicily and Gibraltar. Abbey Travel 196; See Blackmer 1813.