America HENNEPIN (Louis). Description de la Louisiane... Lot 149

[America] HENNEPIN (Louis). Description de la Louisiane nouvellement découverte au Sud-Ouest de la Nouvelle France (...) - Les Mœurs et la manière de vivre des Sauvages. Paris, Veuve de Sébastien Hure, 1683. One volume in-12, full contemporary brown basane, spine ribbed and decorated. (1) f. blc, (6) ff, map, 312 pp.; 107 pp., (1) f. blc. Epidermures, head cap damaged, 2 small tears to map (not missing), light foxing.

Extremely rare first edition of the first description of Louisiana. It includes THE VERY RARE MAP of this new territory (approx. 30 x 47 cm), the first to give Louisiana its name and one of the first to depict the Mississippi, here called the Colbert.

The first work by récollet priest, missionary and explorer Louis Hennepin (1626-1705), reporting on the expedition he made with Robert Cavelier de La Salle, commissioned by Louis XIV to explore and colonize the lower Mississippi. It is the very first published description of Louisiana. In addition, this text contains "the first printed account of La Salle's voyage to the Illinois country in 1678 and 1679, as well as the first printed [eyewitness] description of Niagara Falls, as well as the first printed account of the Mississippi above its confluence with the Wisconsin River." (Streeter).

The work consists of two parts, each with its own pagination. The second, "Les mœurs des sauvages", was written following his captivity among the Sioux, which lasted three months.