The great navigator James Cook, who opened up the Pacific for Western civilisation, died in Hawaii in 1779. The account of his death was edited for the first time in the anonymous German booklet “Nachrichten von dem Leben und den Seereisen des berühmten Captain Cook” (News of the Life and Sea Voyages of the Famous Captain Cook). A copy of this extremely rare work, bound together with another very rare account of the Spanish expeditions by Bodega y Quadra, is expected to obtain 20,000 €. In 1596, the Dutch circumnavigator Jan Huygen van Linschoten wrote the handbook “Itinerarium, Ofte Schipvaert naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien”, comprising the invaluable knowledge of the East and West Indies and the relevant sea routes. The estimated price for a coloured copy of the rare second edition from 1614 is 60,000 €.

The offer of atlases and town books at Reiss & Sohn is again neither lacking in quantity nor in quality. Among the most valuable items are Blaeu’s Belgian town book in the Latin edition from about 1652 with 296 views and plans and Janssonius’ rare town book of the Netherlands from 1657 with 113 views and plans, both in splendid colouring and each with an estimate of 75,000 €.

A rarity of special kind is the first edition of the so-called Peasants’ Articles of 1525, a unique document of German political and European social history, being the first German statement of fundamental and human rights. Since both the first edition of these six leaves and the numerous reprints mostly were destroyed by the opponents, the offered copy is extremely rare and precious (estimate 60,000 €).