16/06/2026
Travels in Southern Africa (in Italian) by François Le Vaillant, 2 vols (1834)
Ex libris, map collector, Oscar Norwich.
By François Le Vaillant (1753–1824), one of the most flamboyant and influential figures in the history of South African ornithology and exploration. Sent to the Cape by the Dutch East India Company in the early 1780s, Le Vaillant was among the very first to travel extensively into the deep interior of the Cape colony specifically to study wildlife. He revolutionized ornithology by studying birds in their natural habitats rather than just stuffed skins, but he was also a master storyteller. He famously traveled with a pet baboon named Kees (who acted as his official taster for unknown fruits and roots) and a clever hunting dog named King.
The Translator: A Defiant Venetian Aristocrat
The translator's credit reads"DI F. CONTARINI EX-PATRIZIO VENETO."
A Political Statement, Francesco Contarini was a nobleman from one of Venice’s oldest and most powerful ruling families. When Napoleon dissolved the Republic of Venice in 1797, ending over a millennium of Venetian independence, the local aristocracy lost their sovereign status.
By explicitly signing his translation as an "ex-patrizio veneto" (former Venetian patrician), Contarini was making a quiet but defiant political statement, holding onto his identity under foreign rule during the Restoration era. Unable to govern, many of these displaced nobles turned to literature, translating great works of foreign exploration.
Published in Naples in 1834 by the Nuovo Gabinetto Letterario.
This particular edition is highly sought after by collectors because it was issued as a pocket-sized edition (16mo) that features "figure miniate"—beautiful, hand-colored copperplate engravings.
European audiences in the 1830s had an insatiable appetite for Le Vaillant's vivid, sometimes romanticized descriptions of the Cape's indigenous peoples (the Khoikhoi and Xhosa), the dramatic landscape, and the exotic megafauna, making Italian translations like this highly popular choices for private libraries.
2 vols; complete; 18 hand coloured copperplate engravings; some scattered foxing; stains (see images).
Each vol: 100mm x 155mm
R6,500
https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/books-on-africa/travels-in-southern-africa-italian-1834
