An interesting narrative of the travels of James Bruce, Esq. into Abyssinia, to discover the source of the Nile by BRUCE, James - 1790

1790 RARE PROVENANCE Rutledge Founding Father 1st ed Bruce Voyages AFRICA

First American edition of James Bruce's expedition in Ethiopia!

James Bruce was an 18th-century Scottish voyager known primarily for his scientific discoveries in Ethiopia and Egypt. In 1768, Bruce set off from Alexandria into Ethiopia where he claimed to be the first European to find the source of the Nile River, unknowing that it had previously been found by Portuguese Jesuits.

This work includes descriptions of Ethiopian military and weapons, Abyssinian language and alphabet, Ancient Egyptian antiquities, frescoes, obelisks, and hieroglyphs, costumes and clothing, geography and topography of North Africa, and botanical findings.

This extremely rare first American edition was abridged and edited by Samuel Shaw.

Note: Significant provenance: this copy belonged to John Rutledge (brother of Declaration of Independence Signer), who was the first president of South Carolina and later its first Governor after the Declaration of Independence. He also helped write the U.S. Constitution, served as the 2nd U.S. Chief Justice following John Jay.)

Item number: #7601

Price: $1500

BRUCE, James

An interesting narrative of the travels of James Bruce, Esq. into Abyssinia, to discover the source of the Nile

[London: printed] New York: re-printed for Berry and Rogers, Hanover-Square, 1790. 1st edition

Details:

· Collation: Complete with all pages

o ix, [2], 12-380

o Lacks folding map of Africa

· References: Evans 23228

· Provenance: Armorial Bookplate – John Rutledge

o John Rutledge (1739 – 1800) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States as well as its second Chief Justice. Additionally, he served as the first President of South Carolina and, later, its first Governor after the Declaration of Independence.

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Rutledge established a legal career after studying at Middle Temple in the City of London. He was the elder brother of Edward Rutledge, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Rutledge served as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress, which protested taxes imposed on the Thirteen Colonies by the Parliament of Great Britain. He also served as a delegate to the Continental Congress before being elected as Governor of South Carolina. He served as governor during much of the American Revolutionary War.

After briefly returning to Congress, Rutledge was appointed to the South Carolina Court of Chancery. He was a delegate to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, which wrote the United States Constitution. During the convention, he served as Chairman of the Committee of Detail, which produced the first full draft of the Constitution. The following year he also participated in the South Carolina convention to ratify Constitution.

In 1789, President George Washington appointed Rutledge as one of the inaugural Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Rutledge left the Supreme Court in 1791 to become Chief Justice of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas and Sessions. He returned to the Supreme Court, this time as Chief Justice, following the resignation of John Jay in June 1795. As the vacancy came during a long Senate recess, Washington named Rutledge as the new chief justice by a recess appointment. When the Senate reconvened in December 1795, it rejected Rutledge's nomination by a 10–14 vote. Rutledge resigned his commission shortly thereafter and withdrew from public life until his death in 1800. He holds the record for the shortest tenure of any Chief Justice. His was the first Supreme Court nomination to be rejected by the Senate, and he remains the only "recess appointed" justice not to be subsequently confirmed by the Senate.

· Language: English

· Binding: Leather; tight & secure

· Size: ~7in X 4in (18cm x 10cm)

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7601

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