Lot 582
LOBO Jeronymo
Auction: 1 February 2005 at 11:00 GMT
Description
A short relation of the River Nile of its source and current; of its overflowing the campagnia of Ægypt, till it runs into the Mediterranean and of other curiosities ... 1st English edition, pp. [ix], 105, verso blank, contemporary sheep, scuffed, 8vo., London: John Martyn, 1669
Note: Wing L 2733
One of the most important and earliest sources on Ethiopia and the Nile by the Portuguese Jesuit Jeronymo Lobo (1595-1687). Lobo stayed in Ethiopia, mostly in Tigre, for 9 years and travelled to Lake Tana and the Blue Nile, reaching the province of Damot. When the Jesuits were expelled from the country, he too had to leave and did so via Massaua and Suakin. He was only the second European to describe the sources of the Blue Nile. His work on Abyssinia was later translated by Samuel Johnson - Johnson's first book.