[BLUE MOUNTAINS CROSSING] Neue Allgemeine Geographische Ephemeriden.

Verfasset von einer Gesellschaft von Gelehrten, und herausgegeben von Dr. F. J. Bertuch … … Erster Band. Weimar : im Verlage des Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, 1817.  Octavo, four parts in one volume, octavo (192 x 120 mm), contemporary cloth-backed marbled papered boards (lightly rubbed), expertly re-backed; front pastedown with 19th-century University College, London bookplate; frontispiece folding engraved map ‘Charte der neuen Entdeckungen westwärts von Botany Bay jenseits der blauen Berge. Weimar, 1817‘ (24 x 17 cm; browning and a few spots of foxing); pp. vi, 7-132; 133-274; 275-398; 399-522; one folding table; text in German; occasional light foxing, else very good throughout.

This volume comprises the first four monthly parts (January-April) from the year 1817 of the Weimar Geographical Institute almanach Neue Allgemeine Geographische Ephemeriden. Most significantly, it contains as a frontispiece to the first part a rare map with Weimar imprint which shows the latest discoveries west of Sydney, New South Wales since the crossing of the Blue Mountains by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth in 1813. The map shows the route taken between Windsor and Mount Pleasant, with creeks and rivers, hills and ranges and named towns. Examples of this map are held in the NLA (Bib ID:2909251) and SLNSW (M1 811.1/1817/1). It is important to note that the map was intended to accompany an article in the same issue (January 1817, pp. 117-125), titled ‘Weitere Nachrichten von den Entdeckungen im Inneren von Neu-Holland (Mit einer Charte)‘, which reports on the recent discoveries in the interior of New South Wales in 1813-16. However, since this particular year’s issues of Neue Allgemeine Geographische Ephemeriden are not found on Trove, it would seem that the individual maps in both the NLA and SLNSW have lost their original context. Furthermore, the February 1817 issue contains an article (pp. 257-60) titled ‘Neueste Nachrichten Aus Neu-Süd-Wallis. Aus dem Schreiben eines Engländers‘ – an anonymous eyewitness account of recent developments in the colony in the middle of the Macquarie era; and the April 1817 issue contains Macquarie’s journal account (pp. 399-415) of his trip to the western side of the Blue Mountains in April-May 1815, here published as ‘Tagebuch der Entdeckungs-Reise des Englischen Gouverneurs von Neu-Süd-Wallis, Herrn Mac-Quarrie in das Innere von Neu-Holland, im Westen der blauen Berge; gemacht im April und Mai 1815‘.