Histoire de la Virginie : contenant, I. l'histoire du premier etablissement dans la Virginie, & de son gouvernement jusques à présent, II. les productions naturelles & les commoditez du païs, avant que es Anglois y negociassent, & l'améliorassent, III. la religion, les loix, & les coutumes des Indiens naturels, tant dans la guerre, que dans la paix, IV. l'etat présent du païs, tant à l'égard de la police, que de l'amelioration du païs

Amsterdam: Chez Thomas Lombrail, marchand libraire, dans le Beurs-Straat, 1707. Full Calf. Near Fine. First French-language Edition (another French language edition was printed in Orleans, but bearing a Paris imprint, the same year, with no priority definitively established), translated from the English, of the first history of the Virginia colony "and the best contemporary account of its aboriginal tribes and the life of its early settlers." (Howes) 12mo (159 x 92mm): [6],433,[16]pp, with engraved title page (featuring coat of arms of Virginia),14 finely executed numbered plates based on engravings from De Bry's Grand Voyages, and folding table (p. 433). Contemporary calf, spine richly gilt in six compartments between raised bands, red morocco lettering piece gilt. A handsome, well-preserved copy, tightly bound and clean throughout. This edition was in Thomas Jefferson's library, at Monticello. Sabin 5116. Howe B-410. Church 821. JCB I 93. Goldsmiths'-Kress 4396. Geology Emerging 212. European Americana V, p. 436. While in London, in 1705, Robert Beverley wrote and published The History and Present State of Virginia, one of the earliest printed English-language histories about North America by an author born there. Beverley was a scion of Virginia's planter elite, at odds with royal governors in the colony. As a native-born American—most famously claiming "I am an Indian"—he provided English readers with the first thoroughgoing account of the province's past, natural history, Indians, and current politics and society. Sabin calls Beverley the "best authority," affording the "most vivid, comprehensive, instructive, and entertaining picture of Virginia at the date of his writing." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).