Voyage de la France equinoxiale en l'isle de Cayenne
« No other account give as much light as Biet’s on the inhabitants of Guyana ; He depicts them in all their natural simplicity.
Their vocabulary is carefully made » (Bibl. des Voyages).
Rare first edition of the account of the mission of Cayenne undertaken by the French in 1652.
Preserved in its contemporary vellum.
4° of 12 ll. and 432 pp.
Contemporary ivory vellum.
238 x 172 mm.
Biet, Antoine. Voyage de la France équinoxiale en l'isle de Cayenne, entrepris par les François en l'année MDC.LII divisé en trois livres. Le premier contient : l'établissement et sa route iusques à son arrivée en l'isle de Cayenne. Le second, ce qui s'est passé pendant quinze mois que l'on a demeuré dans le païs. Le troisième traite du tempérament du païs, de la fertilité de sa terre, et des mœurs et façons de faire des saunages de cette contrée, avec un Dictionnaire de la langue du mesme païs.
Paris, Clouzier, 1664.
Rare first editionof the account of the mission of Cayenne undertaken by the French in 1652.
It’s one of the very first works on French Guyana.
Streit 1974 ; Leclerc 2236 ; Brunet, I, 941 ; Chadenat 18 ; Sabin 5269 ; Picot, Catalogue Rothschild,
1993 ; Rahir, La Bibliothèque de l’amateur, 323 ; Bulletin de la librairie Morgand et Fatout, 9094 ;
Huth 167 ; Field, An Essay towards an Indian Bibliography, 127 ; Rich 334 ; Arents 287.
« Very rare » (Morgand et Fatout).
“An account of the conquest of French Guinea. The country and nations are very accurately described”. (Bohn, Catalogue of a very select collection of books, 562).
“The first book contains an account of Cayenne; the second the history of the first fifteen years; and the third of the natives, who are very accurately described. A vocabulary of their language is added.” (Pinkerton).
Born around 1620 in the diocese of Senlis, Antoine Biet was a French missionary who sailed for Cayenne in 1652 with a troop of 600 settlers sent to America by a company to which the colony had been granted. The company had a most deplorable outcome, and Biet had to devote himself to his companions, victims of sickness and misery. He returned to France after a fifteen-month stay in America, and began to write about his trip.
The first two books give a detailed account of the preparation for the expedition and the settlement of the colony at Cayenne, which was a failure since hunger and disease rapidly decimated the colonists. Struggles with indigenous peoples are also described in this second part. The third book is a detailed study of the island and its population. The Dictionary of the Language of the Galibis Indians given by Biet which occupies pages 399 to 432 is of the greatest interest.
A beautiful copy preserved in its contemporary vellum.
Ex-libris with the moto « Vis et prudentia vincunt iustitia et temperantia servant ».
