1612 history of New France heads to auction block

A 400-year-old book described as "the first written history of Canada" — and adorned with one of the earliest and most treasured maps of the country — is to be sold this month at a British auction of rare volumes and historic manuscripts.

The 1612 edition of French adventurer Marc Lescarbot's Histoire de la Nouvelle France — the appearance of which outraged fellow Frenchman Samuel de Champlain, the famed explorer who had planned to be first to publish a history of the New World colony — is expected to fetch up to $50,000.

Lescarbot's landmark work is to be sold at a Christie's auction in London on Nov. 23....