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[2], 87, [1] pp. With 13 tables on 7 folding leaves at end. (4to) 20c14 cm. (8x5½"), modern half vellum & cloth. Second Edition.

Rare treatise by the Spanish naval, cartographer and explorer Dionisio Alcalá Galiano (1760-1805), on the determination of latitude and longitude at sea. Galiano was a pioneer of the use of the chronometer in Spain, allowing him to produce far more accurate maps of the Spanish colonies in the Americas than previously available.  After graduating from the Spanish naval school in 1779 he participated in hydrographic surveys of the Spanish and South American coasts and other Spanish naval scientific explorations. This second edition, well printed by the widow of Joaquin Ibarra, Spain's greatest printer, on fine Catalan laid paper by Joseph Llorens, who had supplied paper for Ibarra's famous 1780 Cervantes, is greatly expanded from the first edition of the previous year, which did not contain the folding tables. OCLC/WorldCat lists only eight copies in institutional libraries.