A voyage to Abyssinia, and travels into the interior of that country....
Philadelphia: M. Carey, 1816. 4to. xii, 454 pp., including half-title and dedication. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. With 1 folding map. Contemporary calf, worn, rebcked; interior lightly browned due to paper stock. Overall a very good copy. Item #15180
First American edition (first printed in London, 1814). A voyage to Abyssinia was produced after Salt’s second trip to Ethiopia. This travelogue provides detailed descriptions of material culture and social customs of Ethiopia and surrounding territories. He even includes vocabulary lists of languages spoken along the African coast, spanning from Mozambique to Egypt. Undertaken on behalf of the British Government, he opens his dedication to the Prince Regent with the request that His Royal Highness support advancement of the Christian religion in that territory.
Originally trained as an artist, Salt (1780–1827) was a diplomat and Egyptologist. He first traveled to Ethiopia in 1805 to establish a British relationship with the Ras of Tigre, and returned again in 1809 for two years. Salt traveled extensively and collected antiquities which now form part of the British Museum, the Sir John Soane Museum in London, and the Louvre.
Price: $1,500.00