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.

Bound in one contemp. full vellum. 2 engraved frontispieces. (12),269;(2),283 pp. Engraved vignettes on title-pages. Clean and fine.

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.: 56125