Biographische Notiz über Sir Francis Drake. [Biographical Sketch of Sir Francis Drake.] by DRAKE, Francis - 1807

Weimar: Industrie-Comptoirs, 1807. 8vo. 3 pages, plus an engraved portrait of Francis Drake. Text is in German. This is a complete monthly issue, containing the above mentioned account. Attractively bound booklet style in recent blue paper covers with label. This issue contains a rare succint biographical sketch of Sir Francis Drake, English circumnavigator, slaver, renowned pirate, and politician of the Elizabethan era, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1581. Drake was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588, subordinate only to Charles Howard and the Queen herself. He died of dysentery in January 1596, after unsuccessfully attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico. His exploits were legendary, making him a hero to the English but a pirate to the Spaniards to whom he was known as El Draque, 'Draque' being the Spanish pronunciation of 'Drake'. These are the original pages printed in 1807, and NOT a reprint. This narrative is from a rare multi-volume geographical and scientific journal titled "Allgemeine Geographische Ephemeriden", which issued fifty volumes from 1798-1816 and which encompassed critical contemporary topics of geography and astronomy. Adam Christian Gaspari and Franz Xaver von Zach were editors of this important scientific journal. .