A Booke called the Treasure for traueilers, deuided into fiue Bookes or partes, containynyng vary necessary matters, for all sortes of Trauailers, eyther by sea or by land

FIRST EDITION, [24], 29, [2], 25, [3], 22, [5], 21, [7], 5-16, [9], variant including fifth book, printers device to title, coat of arms of Sir William Wynter to title verso, final errata leaf with imprint, woodcut inhabited initials, woodcut text illustrations throughout, manuscript annotations throughout in an old hand, first and last few leaves soiled, a few leaves top corner repaired, rebound in contemporary calf, spine gilt, boards elaborately gilt, 4to, London, for Thomas Woodcocke, 1578

Mathematician and innkeeper, William Bourne (1535-1582) spent time as a gunner in the Gravesend garrison of the Royal Navy. It was through this experience, along with contact with other seamen, that he gained the knowledge for the multiple important navigational manuals he wrote. With no formal education, Bourne is “the earliest unlearned English instructor and writer on mathematical practice known to us”(“Mathematical Practitioners”, E G R Taylor). He is also credited with presenting the first design for a navigable submarine, although he never built it.

This work is divided into five parts containing mathematical instructions to calculate distances for navigation, with many diagrams throughout the text. Bourne was able to explain complicated technical matters for the common man. In the preface, Bourne gives advice to those who wish to travel, advocating that travel is advantageous to the commonwealth.

Published a year after Bourne’s more famous work, ‘Regiment for the Sea’ (1574), based to a large extent on Eden’s ‘Arte of Navigation’ (1561), itself a translation of Cortes’ ‘Arte de navigar’. Bourne’s books were commercially successful and his patrons included Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester; William Cecil, Lord Burghley; and Sir William Winter, master of the queen’s ordnance and to whom this work is dedicated.

This is a scarce work in all it’s editions, including the 1641 edition, republished as ‘A Mate for Mariners’.

Provenance: William John Mercer

[ESTC:S104686; STC2: 3432]