GEOGRAPHY FROM SIMPLE TO COMPLEX
[GEOGRAPHY.]
Primi principi di geografia ad uso de’ fanciulli.
[(Colophon:) Bergamo, Pietro Lancellotti, 1753].
8vo, pp. 47, [1 (colophon)]; 7-line woodcut initial to p. 3, woodcut tailpieces throughout; light marginal duststaining, lower corner creased; else a very good copy, partially uncut, sewn longstitch in contemporary carta rustica wrappers; a few marks to covers.
Extremely rare second edition (first 1745) of this Bergamo-printed geographic catechism for young children.
The anonymous author explains in the preface that although many geography books exist for children, few are targeted at the very young, who are occupied with other studies (e.g. learning to write), and suggests consulting the present work alongside maps by the cartographer Guillaume Sanson (1633–1703). The first portion provides a simple introduction to geography, the cardinal directions, and the primary divisions of Europe, North America, South America, the Southern Hemisphere, the Polar regions (including Novaya Zemlya, Svalbard, and, curiously, Cumberland and Wales). The second, aimed at slightly older pupils (‘per la seconda Scuola di Gramatica’), focuses on individual countries rather than broader geographic regions, providing additional detail on religion, forms of government, capital cities, primary rivers and islands, and languages spoken. Amongst the areas mentioned here are ‘Turkey in Europe’ (trans., i.e. Tartary, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania); Asian islands (Japan, the Philippines, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Maldives); Cuba and Puerto Rico; Canada, ‘New France’ and Acadia; and Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.
Later editions followed in 1767, 1753, and 1765, the last of which was printed by the Remondini.
Not on OCLC or Library Hub; OPAC SBN records a single copy in Italy, at the Biblioteca comunale Ruggero Bonghi in Lucera.
