Beschreibung:

Kort Beskrifning Om Provincien Nya Swerige uti America, Som nu förtjden af the Engelske kallas Pensylvania.
Stockholm: J. H. Werner, 1702. Small 4to (190 x 150 mm). Title page printed in red and black with a woodcut printer’s device. Engraved additional title depicting William Penn and the Indians, engraved folding view of Niagara Falls after Hennepin, engraved plate of three Native Americans, 4 engraved maps (2 folding), and 11 illustrations within the text (including two full-page cuts). Vellum, bookseller’s ticket on the front pastedown. Housed in a cloth chemise and morocco backed slipcase. Condition : several text leaves with minor paper restoration in the lower margins, minor closed tears to two folding maps, one map remargined along the bottom; minor soiling. Provenance : Samuel W. Pennypacker? (Pennypacker Sale, Part III, Henckels, 5 December 1906, lot 74); Goodspeed’s, This Month at Goodspeed’s 35:1; J. Welles Henderson. first edition of the first detailed account of new sweden, the earliest permanent settlement in the delaware valley. This important work was compiled by Campanius principally from the notes of his grandfather, the Reverend Johan Campanius, who spent six years in the region from 1642-48 as a missionary to the Natives of the region. The work includes a vocabulary and detailed descriptions of the Leni-Lennapi. The other principal source for the author was Per Lindstrom, a Swedish engineer who accompanied Campanius, and after whom a map and plate are based. The maps and plates are each engraved by the author. The former comprise 1) Totius Americae Descriptio (a general map of North America showing California as an island) 2) Novae Sveciae Tabula (by Nicolas Visscher 3) Nova Svecia hodie dicta Pensylvania (after Lindstrom, depicting the Delaware from Cape May to Nickhickan) and 4) Virginiae N. Angliae N. Hollandiae nec non Novae Sveciae Delineatio. The provenance of this copy to the famous Pennsylvania library of Samuel W. Pennypacker is suggested by the vellum binding, as well as a clipping from that catalogue laid in and a pencil note on the rear pastedown recording that sale price of $55. Few copies of the first edition have been sold at auction, and those that have appeared have generally been defective or in poor condition; this is overall a lovely copy. Alden & Landis 702/108; Church 803; Field 233; Howes C84; Mirror of the Indian 47; Pennypacker Sale III:74 (this copy?); Sabin 10202; Siebert Sale 125; Streeter, Beginnings 25; Streeter Sale 947; Vail 291.