Lot 03061

Falconer W., “The Shipwreck, a Poem in three cantos”, London, 1804. New edition, with extended bibliographical memoir. Tall 4to, 27x19cm. Large uncut copy. Later leather over boards, very light scattered spotting, otherwise a very good copy. Complete, pp. [44], 220 with three (3) copper engraved plates and several vignettes. The Shipwreck is a famous 18^th century poem based, most probably, in a real shipwreck incident in the Greek Archipelago. In the poem the ship sunk in a trip from Crete to Athens. Written by Falconer (1732-1769), a Scottish poet and mariner who was one of the three only survivors of a shipwreck in the Greek seas in 1757, it was first published in 1762 and improved later. The publication had a great success with the fine poetic description blended with views of Greek landscapes. The new edition of 1804 had an extended bibliographical memoir and the life of Falconer (who drowned in 1769) and three newly engraved copper plates of views of Levant and vignettes. A fine travel in Greece and the Levant during the 18^th century. RARE. Blackmer 570.