Bruce, James – Travels into Abyssinia – Abridged Edition, [1812]

BRUCE, James. Travels, Between the Years 1765 and 1773, through Part of Africa, Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, into Abyssinia, to Discover the Source of the Nile… Being the Substance of the Original Work. London: Albion Press; published by J. and J. Cundee, Ivy-Lane, Paternoster-Row, [1812]. 8vo.

A single-volume abridgement of James Bruce’s celebrated account of his travels through North-East Africa and Abyssinia in search of the source of the Nile. Bruce reached Gondar in 1770 and later visited the springs of the Blue Nile, publishing his full account in five quarto volumes in 1790.

This more accessible edition preserves the principal episodes of Bruce’s journey together with accounts of Abyssinian society, government, religion and customs.

Size

21 × 13.5 cm.

Condition

Binding rubbed and marked, with wear to the extremities; gilt lettering remains clear. Boards a little worn but firmly attached. Olive green endpapers intact. Internally toned throughout, with handling wear to several pages, spotting and occasional marks.

The publisher’s Directions for placing the Plates calls in this copy for a portrait, vignette title and five subject plates. The portrait, vignette title and four subject plates are present; lacking only Canga, or Boat Used on the Nile, called for at p. 51.

Bibliographical Note

The title page is undated; the Cundee issue is conventionally dated [1812]. The publisher’s directions in this copy call for five subject plates, an arrangement also found in the British Library’s 1817 reissue of the same 486-page text.

References

British Library, 1817 S. Russell reissue of the same 486-page recension, ALMA 990180642990109251.