A Voyage to Abyssinia,

First edition of Salt's work on Abyssinia, the largest treatment of Ethiopia since Bruce's Travels twenty-five years prior, and includes one of the earliest depictions of indigenous hippo hunting.

Salt had previously visited Ethiopia in 1805 as part of Viscount Valentia's entourage, visiting Massawa, Aksum, Adwa, and other parts of Tegré. He returned to Ethiopia in 1809 on a government mission to treat with the Ethiopian Emperor Egwale Seyon in Gondar, but unrest prevented him from going further than Tegré. Salt instead spent two years recording the geography, wildlife, and people of the region, including his own accomplished drawings and views of his surroundings. He visited the early Christian monastery of Dabra Damo and the pre-Aksumite capital, Yeha, as well as the towns of Chelaqot, Antalo, Adwa, and Aksum where he recorded a fourth-century stone inscription.

On his return he was soon elevated to General Consul of Egypt, and would go on to be one of Britain's greatest promoters of Egyptology.

First edition; 4to (31 x 24 cm); 28 engraved plates on 27 leaves after Salt, 7 engraved maps and charts on 6 sheets, 4 of which folding and 1 hand-coloured, 2 engraved vignettes, tear through p.11 repaired without loss of text, a couple of small tears to folds of maps repaired, one map bisected by binder through middle fold and expertly repaired without loss; full contemporary tree calf, rebacked preserving original gilt morocco lettering piece, gilt roll to board edges, all edges speckled, corner tips professionally restored, a very good copy; xii, [iv], 506, lxxv pp.

Blackmer 1479; Gay 2683; Pankhurst 12.