The New American Practical Navigator (bound with) An Appendix to the New American Practical Navigator.

Newburyport: Edmund M. Blunt, 1802 (and) 1804. The first complete epitome of practical navigation for the common man, at once acclaimed by the maritime world. Often termed the greatest book in the history of navigation, this intellectual achievement of our early culture was indispensable to the maritime and commercial expansion of the nineteenth century. Grolier 100. First edition of a keystone work in the history of navigation. See Campbell #3, Karpinski p. 142. Grolier 100. The folding frontispiece chart, often incomplete or missing, is present in this copy and in very good condition. Scattered foxing and tanning in text. Ownership signature in pencil of "J.H. Holmes 1818" on title page. Rebound in full calf with original spine label and gilt rules on backstrip. This is a very good copy of a major contribution to American intellectual history. Bound in with the "Navigator" is the rare "Appendix" in which Bowditch corrects the instructions on p.180 of his "Practical Navigator" for calculating the distance of the moon from the sun or a star. Four new tables are added to facilitate calculation. See Shaw & Shoemaker 5896. The "Appendix" is certainly a rarer item than the rare "Navigator." Worldcat shows 9 institutions holding copies, but few copies appear in the trade. The most recent sale of the "Appendix" at auction was at the, second Streeter sale, in which a copy in wrappers sold for $6600. Navigator and Appendix together. . 22 cm. xvi, 17-246, (plus "Tables," "Sea Terms," "Explanation." "Evolutions at Sea"), 533-589, (3), (4 publisher's ads) pp. (bound with) (40), (1 publisher's ad) pp. 7 b/w plates and folding chart as frontispiece.