A New and Complete System of Universal Geography; : describing Asia, Africa, Europe and America; with their subdivisions of republics, states, empires, and kingdoms .

Payne, John

Published by New York 1798-1800, New York, 1798

About this Item

4 volumes. Original full leather with red morocco spine labels, lightly worn, some maps frayed at edges from misfolding. The front board of Volume 2 is damaged along the fore edge and has top corner of the back board missing. Some joints weak, particularly the front joint of Volume IV (America) which is starting. 43 (of 44) maps, and 13 (of 16) plates, lacking the map of India in volume 1 and 3 plates in volume 1. The Maryland/Delaware map has been supplied from another copy. Does not contain maps of Northwest Territory or Turkey called for in the lists of plates, but Wheat & Brun indicates that these have not been found in any copies. Also lacks pp. 309-314 and pages 85-88 in volume 1, with the Map of India missing. Overall a very good copy of this early American Geography, with maps of all of the states at the time. Volume 2 of this set is particularly interesting. It is dated 1799 (with the last digit seemingly tampered with), not 1800 as noted by standard sources such as Evans, Wheat & Brun and the American Antiquarian Society. Also, the title page of Volume 2 cites additions by James Hardie. Hardie was named on the title page of Volume 1 as well, as noted by Evans, but Evans 38199 does not show Hardieâ s name appearing in Volume 2. One other bibliographic note: The American Antiquarian Society notes that in volume 1 of their copy, page 510 is mistakenly designated as page 410. In this copy, page 510 of volume 1 is correctly numbered. Considering these discrepancies, it is possible that a comparison of this copy with others might reveal additional variations, but that is only speculation. Most of the maps in Volume 3 (Europe) are not listed in Wheat & Brun, almost certainly because the title page of that volume is dated 1800, not 1798 or 1799 as the other volumes are. The map of Georgia in volume 4 is notable as it includes the areas west to the Mississippi River in what later became Alabama and Mississippi. Sets of Payneâ s Geography have been frequently plundered for their maps over the years, making complete, or nearly complete as this set is, copies quite rare in trade. Payneâ s Geography was an important production, being the most comprehensive attempt at an American world geography to date. Evans 34316, 38199, 36047.

Seller Inventory # b00598

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A New and Complete System of Universal Geography; : describing Asia, Africa, Europe and America; with their subdivisions of republics, states, empires, and kingdoms .
• Publisher: New York 1798-1800, New York
• Publication Date: 1798
• Binding: Hardcover
• Seller catalogs:
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