1732 Relation Du Voyage de la Mer Du Sud, by Frezier. With a rare Bovio signed apothecary medical prescription loose within for place marker

The 1732 edition of Frezier's Relation du Voyage de la Mer Du Sud; in this 2nd edition Frezier adds a detailed response to criticism of his first edition.

This copy is something of an "Easter egg", holding a rare medical prescription from a noted family of Italian medical professions (signed Bovius, likely of the Bovio family) that was used as a place holder. This is backed up by the book's regional provenance (see more below).

Frezier's work is fascinating for what is printed, and what is unprinted.

Frezier wrote a detailed description of South America, with many plates and maps; in addition, Frezier found a strawberry plant, with large fruit, that he described and brought examples of back to Europe, which instigated the strawberry's success as a fruit crop (previously, the European examples had been too small to commercialize).

Frazier's engravings capture fascinating things including the large strawberries, but also South American kayak-like vessels, lobsters, seahorses, llamas, native families, etc. There's also musical notes of songs he heard.

This copy is missing plate xxxii, "Carte du cap de horn".

Secretly, Frezier was a spy for the French, mapping out Spanish ports under the guise of science.

The Apothecary Prescription -

Likely used a placeholder, there is a prescription, loose within, that reads -

"Per Romano (Coccino?). Rx aq. theriac. meliss. ceras. nigr. cinam. aa 3iij confec. hiacint. alkerm. aa 3i oxim. squil. 3ij m. cap. e cocl. Bovius"

This is roughly translated as:

"For Romano (Coccino?). Take theriac water, lemon balm water, black cherry water, and cinnamon water, three ounces of each; confection of hyacinth and confection of alkermes, one drachm of each; oxymel of squill, two ounces. Mix. Take by the spoonful. Bovius."

The Bovio family of the Northern Italy region was known as a forward-thinking and published family of medical professions, with medical history dating to the 16th century. Tomasso Bovio (15212-1609) was an unconventional physician (see NIH bio) who challenged the Galenic method, in print.

The Bovio family continued to practice medicine, with their name associated with Northern Italy for centuries. Latinized, the name is written as Bovius.

This book was sold in the 19th century by the Mondovi-Piazza bookseller Ferrua, giving context that this book resided in Northern Italy, where the Bovio family was active. Also, in the 20th century the Northern Italian scholar Aldo Maffey owned the book.

I've been unable to find an example signature of the well-known 18th century Bovius doctor of Northern Italy. I've also been unable to tie the unique bookbinder's tool, with a bird and shell, to a specific family, but there may be a relationship between the shell and the last name of the person to whom the prescription was written.

Bibliographic Details -

Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) numbers 82249014, 13483798, 63943374 and 81710468, 8 copies recorded in the world's libraries (Columbia U., Harvard Library, Uni Basel, Cornell, Oxford, Cambridge, Bibliotheque Mazarine).

"Merely a new title page, and a supplement of sixty-three pages added to the quarto edition of 1716. The supplement consists of Frezier's reply to Father Feuillée's criticisms in the preface to his third volume (1725)"--Sabin

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 25 x 19 x 3.5 cm. Leather binding. Spine with five raised bands; five compartments with central bird and shell stamp surrounded by sprays of leaves in gilt, one compartment with title in gilt on red morocco. All edges sprinkled. Marbled endpapers. Illustrated. Maps.

Pages - xiv, 298, [2], 63, [1]

Collation - a-b4, A-Z4, Aa-Oo4, Pp2, A-H4 All text block leaves present.

Plates - Missing plate 32, all others present. Plates numbers 1-37. 16 fold-out. Plate 30 mis-labelled 36.

Condition -

Missing one plate, XXXII.

See pictures. Very worn leather binding, worn through at edges and corners. Some starting of joints. Chipping at head and tail of spine. Bookseller ticket and ex libris plate on pastedown. "Clerico de Pras written twice on blank front endpaper and on title page once.

Text block toned throughout with some thumbing. An occasional fox spot, dog-eared page, candle ember mark, etc. 1st two leaves with small chip at top edge. Some chipping to fore-edge of a3, looks like it was tipped back in (glue marks at gutter). Pages 31-38 have heavy rusting, something very acidic was kept between 34 and 35 (no longer present); 2" hole at bottom of 35/36. Occasional stray ink marks. Graphite strikethrough on plate number of XXXVI. Missing plate 32, Carte du Cap de Horn. Plates page with checkmarks.