Leiden, Pieter van der Aa, [ca. 1725]. Oblong folio (17.3 x 22.9 cm). Pictorial, engraved title page; 136 engraved and numbered plates [1-119; 2*, 9*, 13*, 17*, 21*, 34*, 35*, 59*. 60*, 83*, 93*, 98*, 116*, 21**, 35**, 93**,116**]. 19th-century red polished quarter calf over marbled boards. Spine with gilt and black lines and gilt title. Marbled endpapers. Speckled edges.

An excessively rare (Vinet: "Recueil fort rare") complete copy of a work published by the Dutch cartographer and printer Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733) The plates have been drawn by the Dutch painter and engraver Jan Goeree (1670-1731), his compatriots J. Mulder, and Hillebrand van der Aa, the publisher's brother (Lipperheide). The plates depict people from various countries and regions, including Spain, the Maghreb, Persia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Congo or "Lovango", Arabia, Tierre del Fuego, Virginia, and especially America (13 plates), Japan (25 plates), and China (35 plates). The last two countries featuring most prominently. One plate deals with Australia: Physionomie des habitans de la Nouvelle Hollande. In some copies, the plates are arranged according to the regions, but in this copy, the original numerical order is maintained, except that several bis-plates bound before instead of after the regular plates with the same number. Plates 13*, 83*, 116* and 116** are much larger, and double-folded. Plate 119 is inscribed with the words "finis", and "Soli Deo Gloria", showing a Dutch landscape with a Leiden landmark, viz., the Burcht (shell keep). A former, 19th-century owner has added, in a neat old hand, a two-page table, or index, which is bound in in the rear. A printed index was never issued. Old correction to the caption of Plate 66 and 96. Plate 104 with a slightly smaller right margin. Some light spotting and thumbing, but most;y clean; Plate 116* with a few larger brown stains; three plates partly coloured. Only two complete copies, with all plates, have been sold at auction: one from the J. Heinz library in Pittsburgh (1920), and one sold by Parke Bernet in 1956, which could be the same one sold in 1920. Colas, 1367; Hiler, 136; Lipperheide, 34; Vinet, 2.100.