The Voyage of Nearchus from the Indus to the Euphrates, Collected from the Original Journal Preserved by Arrian, and Illustrated by Authorities Ancient and Modern. Containing an account of the first navigation attempted by Europeans in the Indian Ocean; to which are added three dissertations…

Vincent, William. 1739-1815.

Book ID: 34776

£1,200.00

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4to. xv, 530 pp., [2], steel engraved frontispiece, 6 engraved maps and charts of which 5 are folding, contemporary half-calf, rubbed with small chip to lower corner, marbled end papers, title gilt on morocco label, some browning & spotting especially on frontispiece, Bath Public Library label verso front cover, blind stamp on top of preface page, with usual blindstamps, label verso front cover, hinges weak, T. Cadell Jun. & W. Davies, London, first edition, 1797.

Synopsis

William Vincent was the Dean of Westminster. This major work by him is on the ancient geography. In 1797 he issued his commentary on Arrian’s “Voyage of Nearchus”, which he terms “the first event of general importance to mankind in the history of navigation.” Schneider, a later editor of Arrian, translated Vincent’s argument into Latin and subjoined them as a complete answer.
“The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea” is a short work of uncertain date and unknown authorship’ “written in very difficult Greek. It is concerned with the coasts of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean and may be described as a combined trade directory and Admiralty Handbook, giving sailing directions and information about navigational hazards, harbours, imports, and exports. It is of great value for the study of the commerce of the Roman Empire and the early history of East Africa, South Arabia, and India”.
First edition. English translation of Arrian’s account of the navarch (the commander of a fleet in ancient Greece) Nearchus’s voyage from the Indus estuary to the Tigris in 325 BC, in effect the Greek “discovery” of the Arabian Peninsula, as noted by the British Arabist Colonel S. B. Miles: “It was in the time of Alexander that the land of Oman was first seen by Europeans. His admiral, Nearchus, when passing up the Persian Gulf, sighted Cape Maceta or Cape Mussandom, and heard from the pilot of a great Omani emporium … Alexander hearing his report, determined on sending an expedition to circumnavigate the Arabian Peninsula, but his early death in Babylon put an end to this and other schemes, and for nearly a hundred years no fresh light was thrown on the land” (“The Tribes and Countries of the Persian Gulf”, p.8). Vincent states that his purpose “was not to translate Arrian, but to make him intelligible to an English reader, and to investigate a variety of subjects, historical, geographical and commercial” (Author’s preface).
Bibliographic references: Howgego N10; Macro 2253; Wilson p. 237.

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