A Collection of Voyages and Travels, Some now first Printed. Illustrated with Engravings and Maps

London: Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill, 1704. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Rare first editions of all eight volumes. Originally published as a four-volume set, expanded with volumes V-VI in 1732, and followed up by the Osborne volumes in 1745. Contemporary styled speckled calf spines, raised bands, gilt titles, original calf blind panelled boards. Outer edges dentelle. Osborne volumes have speckled calf boards, elaborate gilt compartments, numbered I and II rather than VII and VIII. Speckled edges. c, [4], 813, [12 pp. index]; [4], 838, [12]; [12], 901, [17]; [8], 848, [12]; [4], 716, [6]; [6], iv, 736, [19]; [4], xii, lviii, 873 pp.; 931 pp, [30 pp. index]. Leather is lightly cracked and rubbed. Some light rubbing and wear to edges. Slightly more wear to boards to vol. V and Osborne volumes. Binder's ticket to rear pastedown of Vol. I of first VI vols. Volumes I-VI have newer endpapers and flyleaves. Osborne volumes also previously restored. All volumes have minimal foxing given their age, some browning and offsetting from ink and illustrations, numerous pagination errors (either simple misprints or intentional given the nature of this being a "collected" work including separate title pages from other imprints) with a few pages "lacking" based on pagination and signatures though text appears continuous. Vol. II lacking p. 157-180, apparently never published. A printer's error makes a jump in pagination between pp. 262-410 to Vol. "VII". Other copies appear to have this same mis-pagination. There is also a jump from 630-699 (signature to p. 629 notes "7X-8N" indicating jump is considered). Sporadic damp staining to margins, but volume VI has some more extensive staining to head of gutter. Minimal neat pencil marginalia. Sporadic staining to text and plates. A few paper repairs. Infrequent small spots of worming to edges, text not affected. Occasional soiling, ink smudging, ink fading and rubbing, with the odd small spot of text obscured. A few closed tears to edges (less than half an inch), with a few longer tears (1-4.5" inches), including 2.5" tear to tail edge of plate in vol. V facing p. 202 and 3" tear to foot of plate at 239. Large chip to upper corner of p. 603 of vol. III with no loss of text. Short tear to tail edge at gutter of plate facing p. 808 of vol. IV. Blank space to p. 809 of vol. V with manuscript note "This blank was left by a mistake." Osborne volumes cracked at hinges, ffep loose to vol. I (vol. VII overall). ESTC T97848 & T97843. Cox, I, 10. Hill 295. Sabin 13015, 13016, BA.57765. Goldsmiths', 4035. Hanson, 398. Overall, a remarkably clean and well-preserved and restored set of all eight volumes of the two great voyage anthologies of the period, being an extensive and important collection of various collated travel testimonies, compiled by the brothers Awnsham and John Churchill, based on Richard Hakluyt and Samuel Purchas. The collection spans from the first editions of the first four volumes of 1704 to the first editions of the 1745 Osborne series volumes appended to the set from the collection of the Earl of Oxford, (sometimes called the "Harleian" or "Oxford" Voyages). According to Sabin, these later two volumes are essential accompaniments to the earlier works and all eight volumes are generally found together. This collection is particularly notable for its breadth and the first-hand nature of the accounts, with many of them appearing in English translation for the first time, including the earliest printed source in English for the history of the U.A.E and Qatar (Hill). The introduction, a "History of Navigation from its Original to this time," has been attributed to philosopher John Locke. All volumes are magnificently illustrated with dozens of woodcuts and copper engravings, many of which are double-page spreads or fold-outs, including several interesting maps and charts, all present here and in excellent condition.