AUSTRALIA. - HALL (Joseph)]. MERCURIUS BRITANNICUS. Mundus alter & idem sive Terra Australis antehac semper incognita. Utrecht, Johannes Waesberghe, 1648. In-12, overlapping vellum, gilt title on spine (19th century binding). Sabin, n°29819. Satirical work considered as the first utopia set in the Southern Lands or Australia. One of the earliest, if not the earliest of the fictitious voyages set in Australia, and the book frequently claimed to be the prototype for Gulliver's Travels (Rodney Davidson, A Book Collector's Notes on Items Relating to the Discovery of Australia, 1970). Third edition, decorated with a title-frontispiece, a plate and 5 folding maps showing the southern territories visited by the protagonist: Crapula, Yvronia, Viraginia, Lavernia and Moronia. Published under the pseudonym of Mercurius Britannicus, the work was first published in 1605. Handwritten bookplate dated 1654, partly scratched, and handwritten note of the 19th century, on the back cover. Slight foxing to a few leaves, small worm gallery restored on the edge of a table leaf. Without the texts of Campanella and Bacon which are usually bound with the work.