![[FERNÁNDEZ DE NAVARRETE, Martin (1765-1844), but often attributed to José ESPINOSA Y TELLO (1763-1815), see below]. Relacion del viage hecho por las goletas sutil y Mexicana en el año de 1792 para reconocer el estrecho de fuca. Madrid: La Imprenta Real, 1802.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2007/NYR/2007_NYR_01820_0189_000(015312).jpg?w=1)
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[FERNÁNDEZ DE NAVARRETE, Martin (1765-1844), but often attributed to José ESPINOSA Y TELLO (1763-1815), see below]. Relacion del viage hecho por las goletas sutil y Mexicana en el año de 1792 para reconocer el estrecho de fuca. Madrid: La Imprenta Real, 1802.
4o text (217 x 158 mm) and atlas 2o (296 x 202 mm). Errata leaf, one folding table in text; atlas with title and 1-leaf description of the plates. Atlas with 17 plates, comprising 9 engraved maps (4 folding), 2 folding aquatint views of Nootka, 3 engraved portraits and 3 engraved ethnographic studies. (Text with marginal tape repairs on C2.) Text bound in modern mottled calf in contemporary Spanish style, top edge stained red, others uncut; atlas in contemporary Spanish tree calf.
FIRST EDITION OF THIS IMPORTANT SUMMARY OF SPANISH EXPLORATION IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. Wagner states that the maps of the Northwest Coast in the atlas are superior in some respects to Vancouver's and that Alexandre von Humboldt used them as models for some of the maps in his monumentally important and ground-breaking Essai politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (1811).
Attribution of this work, the first to contain a reference to the expedition of Alessandro Malaspina in its introduction, is a source of some debate. Fernández de Navarrete was a member of a family with long-standing naval tradition and was a career naval officer with access to privileged information. He was instrumental in founding the Depósito Hidrográfico in Madrid and compiled a great deal of data about Spanish naval history, including the transcription of over forty immense volumes of rare manuscripts regarding Spanish voyages since the fifteenth century. The work is sometimes attributed to José Espinosa y Tello, the cosmographer on the Malaspina expedition, whose own account of the voyage was published in 1809 (see lot 182) but given his accumulated study, it is more likely that Fernandéz de Navarrete authored this summary of Spanish exploration of the Northwest Coast, especially in light of the fact that neither Palau nor Sabin associate Espinosa y Tello with the work. Cowan II p.198; Graff 1262 ("most important account of the exploration of the Far Northwest coast by the Spanish"); Hill 570; Howes F-18 ("dd"); Jones 686; Lada-Mocarski 56 ("unsurpassed in importance"); Miles & Reese Creating America 98; Palau 82853-4; Pilling 51; Sabin 2312 (atlas) & 69221 (text); Streeter sale IV:2468; Wagner Northwest Coast 252 & 861; Wickersham 6632 & 6638. VERY RARE. (2)
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FIRST EDITION OF THIS IMPORTANT SUMMARY OF SPANISH EXPLORATION IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. Wagner states that the maps of the Northwest Coast in the atlas are superior in some respects to Vancouver's and that Alexandre von Humboldt used them as models for some of the maps in his monumentally important and ground-breaking Essai politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (1811).
Attribution of this work, the first to contain a reference to the expedition of Alessandro Malaspina in its introduction, is a source of some debate. Fernández de Navarrete was a member of a family with long-standing naval tradition and was a career naval officer with access to privileged information. He was instrumental in founding the Depósito Hidrográfico in Madrid and compiled a great deal of data about Spanish naval history, including the transcription of over forty immense volumes of rare manuscripts regarding Spanish voyages since the fifteenth century. The work is sometimes attributed to José Espinosa y Tello, the cosmographer on the Malaspina expedition, whose own account of the voyage was published in 1809 (see lot 182) but given his accumulated study, it is more likely that Fernandéz de Navarrete authored this summary of Spanish exploration of the Northwest Coast, especially in light of the fact that neither Palau nor Sabin associate Espinosa y Tello with the work. Cowan II p.198; Graff 1262 ("most important account of the exploration of the Far Northwest coast by the Spanish"); Hill 570; Howes F-18 ("dd"); Jones 686; Lada-Mocarski 56 ("unsurpassed in importance"); Miles & Reese Creating America 98; Palau 82853-4; Pilling 51; Sabin 2312 (atlas) & 69221 (text); Streeter sale IV:2468; Wagner Northwest Coast 252 & 861; Wickersham 6632 & 6638. VERY RARE. (2)