IMAGINARY VOYAGE TO GREENLAND

MESANGE, CORDELIER PIERRE de (= TYSSOT DE PATOT).

La Vie, Les avantures, & le Voyage de Groenland. Avec une Relation bien circonstanciée de l'origine, de l'histoire, des Mæurs, & du Paradis des Habitants du Pole Arctique. 2 Vols.

Amsterdam, d'Etinne Roger, 1720.

8vo. Bound in one contemporary full calf with five raised bands alt gilt lettering and ornamentation to spine. Light wear to extremities and internally with occassinal brownspotting. A fine copy. (12),269;(2),283 pp. + 2 engraved frontispieces.

Scarce first edition. This work, together with the author's "Voyages and Adventures of Jacques Massé" (ca. 1710), constitute a truly remarkable achievement, marking a highly significant watershed in the evolution of literary accounts of imaginary voyages, predating Jonathan Swift's satirical account of the travels of Lemuel Gulliver, published in 1726, and Jules Verne's classic Journey to the Center of the Earth by 140 years!
His discoveries in the Region of the North Pole by Tyssot's eponymous hero discovers a secret underground kingdom inhabited by the descendants of African colonists who left their homeland four thousand years earlier, and spends several years recording their stories and fables. (Brian Stableford).

Barbier IV,997.

Order-nr.: 60145