OGILBY, John (1600-1676). Africa: Being an Accurate Description of the Regions of Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid. London: Thomas Johnson for the author, 1670.

OGILBY, John (1600-1676). Africa: Being an Accurate Description of the Regions of Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid. London: Thomas Johnson for the author, 1670.

The first edition of the most extensive account of Africa published in English in the seventeenth century. This was intended to be of the first volume of Ogilby's English Atlas, followed by his description of America (see preceding lot). It is largely a translation and adaption of Olfert Dapper's 1668 Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche gewesten van Egypten, itself a cannily curated collection of travelers' reports and cartographic information. The preface contains Ogilby's only autobiography. Lowndes III, p.1719; Wing O-163.

Folio (416 x 264mm). Half-title; engraved additional title; 51 engraved maps, views, and illustrations, 43 of which double-page or folding, maps hand-colored in outline; engraved illustrations throughout the text (closed tears at crease reaching into several engravings, small paper repair to half-title, some browning). Contemporary calf (joints split, corners showing, losses to leather surface).