DAMBERGER (Christian Frederick).

Travels in the Interior of Africa,

From the Cape of Good Hope to Morocco, in the Years 1781 to 1797…First edition. 2 vols in 1. Folding map, coloured frontispiece & 2 coloured plates. 8vo. Contemporary speckled calf, gilt, slightly shelf worn. xvi, 222, 299, 4ads.pp. London, Longman and Rees, 1801.

£650.00

One of the great imaginary voyages. “The details are so circumstantial, and the mixture of fact and fiction is accomplished with so much skill, that it is not uncommon to find people who do not know” it is a hoax (Mendelssohn).Much of it is drawn from Vaillant, whom he quotes liberally, but is not afraid to contradict.Damberger’s account was remarkably popular, a French edition was produced in the same year, and it was only uncovered by Isaac Disraeli in his Curiosities of Literature. Mendelssohn I, p408.

Stock No.
196743