[COOK, James] ─ HAWKESWORTH, John. Relation des voyages entr - Lot 16

[COOK, James] ─ HAWKESWORTH, John. Relation des voyages entrepris par ordre de Sa Majesté britannique [...] pour faire des découvertes dans l'Hémisphère Méridional... Paris, Saillant et Nyon, Panckoucke, 1774. 4 volumes. With 52 plates (four of which are cloth-covered, in a separate case). Followed by : Voyage dans l'hémisphère austral, et autour du monde, fait sur les vaisseaux de Roi, L'Aventure, la Révolution, en 1772, 1773, 1774 1775. Paris, Hôtel de Thou, 1778. 5 volumes. With 66 plates numbered 1 to 65 (one plate 10 bis) including Cook's portrait, two folding tables and one unnumbered map. Then : Cook's third voyage, or Voyage to the Pacific Ocean... Ibid, id. 1785. 4 volumes. With 88 plates numbered 1 to 87 and a frontispiece, one folding table (two plates 52 and no plate 51). Then : CASTERA. Life of Captain Cook, translated from English by Doctor Kippis, member of the Royal Society of London. Ibid, id. 1789. With a portrait-frontispiece by Benard. And : 8 canvas folding maps - in a separate case, bound in basane in imitation of the other bindings. Crack at bottom of slipcase. 15 vol. in-4. Approx. 26 x 20 cm. Full shagreened fawn basane, gilt lace framing the boards, ornate false-nerve spine, fawn morocco title-piece (period binding). Complete collection of Cook's voyages in the first French translation of the most important circumnavigation story of the 18th century, with an accompanying biography by Castéra. French first editions of Captain Cook's three voyages. Complete collection of the 206 copper engravings (most of them folding or on double pages), produced under Benard's direction, the three folding tables and the unnumbered map in volume V of the second voyage. The first voyage comprises 52 plates, the second 66 (including Cook's frontispiece portrait) and the third 88. During his three successive voyages (1768, 1772, 1776), Cook and his team of scientists made precise and comprehensive observations of the Polynesian archipelagos. After obtaining the approval of the Royal Society in London in 1768, James Cook set out in 1769 to discover the Society Islands archipelago, explore the coast of New Zealand and the lands that had remained unexplored since their discovery by Tasman in 1642. The following year, he surveyed the coast of Australia.