Author: RAFN, Carl Christian. Ed. Montanus Hettema
Title: Narichten betreffende de ontdekking van Amerika in de tiende euw. Naar het deensche van Carel Cristiaan Rafn door Montanus Hettema.
Description: Leeuwarden: L. Schierbeek, 1838. 8vo. 35, [1], 4p. Edges untrimmed. Hbk. Original pink printed wrappers (water stain at top corner) mounted on new pale brown buckram boards; new endpapers. **** First and only edition of this Dutch extract by Montanus de Haan Hettema (1795-1873) of Carl Christian Rafn's (1795 - 1864) famous Antiquitates Americanae, the fullest and most important work relating to the discovery of America by the Northmen, which originally had appeared in Copenhagen in 1837. In this work Rafn stated that America was discovered by Northmen already in the 10th century, that from the 11th to the 14th century the North American coast had been partially colonised as far as Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and that the Vikings had been as far south as Florida. The book contained some Icelandic saga's which were, according to Rafn, directly relating to Northmen activities in America. As this work proved to be very influential, Hettema choose to compile a relatively cheap and compendious extract of it, containing only those parts of Rafn's work which he considered were likely to be the most interesting to Dutch readers. On the two leaves at the end is a prospectus issued by the Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord à Copenhague, for the Antiquitates Americanae extensively quoting Alexandre von Humbold on this book.Haan Hettema was a judge in Leeuwarden and an expert in the field of the Frisian language and history. In the context of the reviving Germanic studies, he had published a Dutch translation of another work by Rafn under the title Beknopte handleiding om de oude Friesche taal te lezen en te verstaan in 1830. De Haan Hettema had translated more of Rafn's Antiquitates Americanae, but most stayed unpublished. Sabin 67485.

Keywords: America, exploration, Greenland, Vikings


See more books from our catalog: Antiquarian miscellaneous