CARPENTER, NATHANAEL. Geography delineated forth in Two Bookes: containing the Sphaericall and Topicall Parts thereof. 52 text woodcuts; 4 folding tables. [20], 274, [2]; [16], 286, [6] pages, including the 2 blanks and errata leaf. 2 volumes in one. 4to, 185x140 mm, contemporary speckled calf, rebacked retaining original backstrip with later gilt tooling, joints partly cracked, endpapers renewed; marginal dampstaining throughout, occasional soiling, tables mounted and rehinged, first volume with title mounted and marginal restoration on 2 preliminaries not affecting text. Oxford: John Lichfield and William Turner for Henry Cripps, 1625
first edition of an early English work on the theory and principles of geography by an Anglican clergyman and philosopher (1589-1628), infrequently found complete with all the tables. "It covered a wide range of geographical subjects; mathematical and theoretical aspects; the relation of the earth to the heavens; the magnetic qualities of the globe; longitude and latitude; descriptions of the seas, lands, rivers, mountains, animals, and men" (Hodgen). Carpenter also included an account of the Copernican system, though he rejected it personally. Alden 625/41 (for New World references including discussions of a North-West Passage and California as a continent); Hodgen, Early Anthropology, pages 286-88; Wolf (16th & 17th Centuries), pages 388-90; STC 4676.
