CAPUT BONAE SPEI HODIERNUM

First German Edition: Title page printed in red and black, complete with the engraved frontispiece, portrait of Kolben, engraved double-page map of South Africa and 23 engraved plates, full contemporary vellum. Bound in a curious way: most of the plates which have two engraved images on each have been carefully cut in half and bound in opposite the page numbers indicated on the separate images which is a sensible arrangement, a very good copy.  

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography, volume 1, pages 843/844:  'Exact and detailed description of the Cape of Good Hope, containing a very circumstantial account of the present state of that celebrated country, its settlements, harbour, fortress, form of government, extent, and the regions recently discovered in its vicinity ; together with an erudite description of the climate and soil of the territory ; of its animals, fishes, birds, plants, and herbs ; likewise of various prodigies of Nature discovered in the country ; to which is added a very accurately compiled account of the Hottentots from the author's own personal investigations : followed by a remarkable report on their language, religion, manner of living, singular traditions, customs, marriage ceremonies, circumcisions, and education ; also many other curious observations concerning the manners of the nation ; the condition of the colony of the European inhabitants, not to be found in any other description of the country. 

 'Written with a strict attention to veracity, during a long residence in the aforesaid Cape of Good Hope, by Peter Kolben, M.A., who was sent to the Cape through a distinguished minister, with letters of introduction from the late Right Hon. Lord Nicholas Witsen, Burgomaster of the town of Amsterdam, for the purposes of this compilation, and for mathematical and astronomical research, and who afterwards became Secretary for Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, and is now headmaster of the celebrated school at Neustad. . . . Augmented and embellished with useful, new, and curious maps and many illustrations. 

Kennedy R.F.) Africana Repository, Juta & Company, 1965, page 58, ‘The first issue, the German edition of 1719, is a very fine folio with 23 full pages of illustrations, most of these plates having two pictures to the page.’