An historical disquisition concerning the knowledge which the ancients had of India; and the progress of trade with that country prior to the discovery of the passage to it by the Cape of Good Hope

William Robertson was an influential literary figure in Enlightenment Edinburgh: a Church of Scotland minister, Principal of Edinburgh University and an early exponent of global history – the author of widely read histories of Scotland and America as well as India.

Robertson’s interest in the latter was driven by personal and poltical connections, ranging from the extraordinary work of cartographer James Rennell to the impeachment of Warren Hastings.

As ODNB notes, the Disquisition falls into two main parts: the first two-thirds is a narrative of the commercial contacts India had with the outside world from ancient times to the sixteenth century; the remainder is a long appendix describing Indian culture.

In true Enlightenment fashion, Robertson concludes in the hope that his description 'of the early and high civilization of India, and of the wonderful progress of its inhabitants in elegant arts and useful science, may have some influence upon the behaviour of Europeans towards that people'.

Condition & Materials
4to, pp. xii, 364, [12] + 2 large folding maps engraved by Samuel John Neele, marginal repairs to second map, occasional light spotting.

Contemporary calf, worn, rebacked.

References
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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Robertson's Ancient India