Bruce, James (1730-1794) Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile.
London: J. Ruthven for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1790.
First edition, five quarto volumes, half-titles in each volume; titles and dedication with engraved vignettes; four leaves listing Ethiopian dialects; illustrated with 58 engraved plates and 3 folding maps; rebound in polished calf-backed marbled boards, gilt-stamped (significant, scattered damp staining to text leaves and some plates, area of mildew to endpapers of one volume, sporadic spotting, a few closed tears, especially at corner folds of maps); 11 5/8 x 9 in.
James Bruce was a lifelong lover of travel and exploration, and claimed to be the first non-Indigenous person to visit the headwaters of the Nile. After traveling extensively in Europe, Bruce and Italian artist Luigi Balugani set off in 1768 for Egypt. The two documented their experiences in Upper Egypt and Abyssinia and followed the Nile. The resulting observations and discoveries are published here, providing new information about Abyssinia, a region rarely visited by Europeans for more than a century.
