Bishop John Coleridge Patteson's personal copy of the rare 'Stanford's map of Australasia, London: Edward Stanford, 1859. First edition. Steel engraved map with hand colouring, total 155 cm x 174 cm, dissected into 48 sections, laid onto linen edged with blue silk, folding to 25.5 cm x 21.5 cm, within original embossed brown morocco boards with gilt lettering and ornament (rubbed, surface tears, spine frayed at head and tail), engraved by W. &' A.K. Johnston, Edinburgh, a near fine example of this truly monumental map (scale ca. 1:4 200 000), the original colouring still strong and vibrant and with some hand annotation in pencil around the 'Salomon Islands' group. The interior cover inscribed in ink 'Bishop Patterson from T. Mort Esq. Good wishes April 1864'. Wikipedia records Patterson as 'A missionary to the South Seas from 1855, Patteson became an accomplished linguist, learning 23 of the islands' more than 1,000 languages. In 1861, he was selected as the first Bishop of Melanesia. Patteson was killed by natives on Nukapu, in the Solomon Islands.'