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.

A 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 Japan, and China. These two countries featuring most prominently. 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 owner has added, in a neat old hand, a two page table, or index. Old correction to the caption of Plate 66; Plate 104 slightly smaller. Some spotting and thumbing; Plate 116* with larger stains; three plates partly coloured. Fewer than five copies recorded in auction, of which only two complete with all plates: 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.