Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ... THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE IN FRENCH LITERATURE CHAPTER I DESCRIPTIONS OF REAL VOYAGES 1. Illustrated Cosmographies. 2. Realism in some accounts of Voyages after 1600. 3. Interest in Accounts of Voyages. 1. Illustrated Cosmographies Widespread interest in geography in the Middle Ages is evidenced by "cosmographies" of the type of the Image du Monde. These fantastic cosmographies, such as that of Maitre Gossouin,1 were followed, in the closing years of the 16th century, by a cosmography in the modern sense of the word. In this, and in subsequent collections of accounts of voyages in the 17th century, it is possible to trace a growing interest on the part of the public in descriptions of far-off lands, and an increasing amount of realism in the accounts of voyages published. The cosmography of the father and sons De Bry was published from 1590 to 1635. It is generally divided into the Long Voyages and the Short Voyages (Grands et Petits Voyages). One part deals with the history of the dis 1 L'Image du mania de Maitre Gossouin, printed at Lausanne, 1913. (Bibliography under Gossouin.) This work of Gossouin is cited as a type. There is no reason for dealing here with the other cosmographies of the same period. covery of America, the other part with an account of the discovery of the East Indies.2 The father and two sons who published this voluminous collection were engravers by trade, and resorted to the history of discovery and exploration in five continents as a means of utilizing and displaying their undoubted skill in the art of illustration. The many volumes, containing accounts of voyages, shipwrecks, explorations, descriptions of fauna and flora, tables of Latin and Indian languages, are fertile in maps. But their...
