Dionysos

1796 · Best.-Nr. 85CE5OB2S9UX — Madrid: widow of Joaquin Ibarra 1796. Early 19th-century gold-tooled tree calf sewn on 4 recessed cords each board in a frame made with a decorative roll and several stamps on the smooth spine gold-tooled fillets on the board edges red morocco spine-label Stormont marbled endpapers yellow edges headbands worked in red and white red silk ribbon marker. Narrow 4to 20.5 x 14 cm. With a woodcut crowned cypher monogram of a Spanish Duke on the title page and 7 folding leaves containing 13 numbered letterpress tables. Greatly expanded second edition of a treatise on the determination of latitude and longitude at sea by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano 1760-1805 Spanish explorer cartographer and captain in the Royal Spanish armada. His much shorter account 26 leaves instead of 45 and without the folding tables was also printed by the widow Ibarra in 1795. Galiano was a pioneer of the use of the chronometer in Spain allowing him to produce far more accurate maps of the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Galiano enrolled in the Spanish naval school in 1775. After graduating in 1779 he participated in hydrographic surveys of the Spanish and South American coasts and other Spanish naval scientific explorations.Joaquin Ibarra 1725-1785 had been printer to the court of King Carlos III and Spain's greatest printer vying with Bodoni and the Didots as a fine printer. His widow continued the tradition and upheld the quality of presswork and materials. The present book is well printed on fine Catalan laid paper by Joseph Llorens who had supplied paper for Ibarra's famous 1780 Cervantes.A library stamp has been cut out of the title-page and the hole expertly restored not affecting text or monogram. Otherwise in fine condition with the paper still crisp. The binding is worn at the hinges but still good.l Bibl. Mar. Española 265; Palau 5752 noting only 6 folding leaves; Houzeau & Lancaster 10540 1795 ed.; for Galiano: Howgego to 1800 G6. widow of Joaquin Ibarra, unknown