“often termed the greatest book in the history of navigation”
BOWDITCH, NATHANIEL. The New American Practical Navigator
Newburyport, Mass.: Edmund M. Blount, 1802
Folding engraved map of the Atlantic, 7 engraved plates (including a chart of the solar system and a diagram of the rigging of a “first rate ship of war”). Contemporary calf. Rebacked preserving maroon leather label. Some browning. A very good copy of a book usually found in distressed condition.
FIRST EDITION. “The first complete epitome of practical navigation for the common man … Often termed the greatest book in all the history of navigation, Bowditch’s Navigator was indispensable to the maritime and commercial expansion of the nineteenth century” (Grolier/American). Bowditch conceived his Navigator as a revision of the error-ridden English Practical Navigator by J. H Moore. Bowditch’s work went into ten editions before the author’s death in 1838, and scores have followed since.
Grolier American Books 25.
$6,500