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RAMUSIO, Giovanni Battista (1485-1557). Delle navigationi et viaggi. Venice: Giunta, 1563, 1606, 1556.
3 volumes, 2o (315 x 210mm). Vol. I with 3 double-page woodcut maps (Africa, India, Indochina), full-page woodcut map of the Nile; Vol. III with 7 double-page woodcut maps and plans (including maps of the Western Hemisphere, Brazil, Newfoundland, West Africa, and Sumatra), full-page woodcut map of Haiti, other full-page woodcuts and woodcut illustrations in text. (Some occasional pale spotting and browning, paper flaw on lower margin of r6 in third volume, a few leaves loose in third volume.) Contemporary vellum, lettered in manuscript on spines (vol. 2 chipped at head of spine, some slight worming to spines); quarter morocco slipcases. Provenance: old library stamps on titles.
A FINE SET OF ONE OF THE OF THE EARLIEST AND MOST IMPORTANT SYSTEMATIC COLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS AND VOYAGES OF THE 16TH CENTURY. Mixed set (as often found): third edition of vol. I, fourth edition of vol. II, and FIRST EDITION of vol. III. This work was first published between 1550 and 1559, followed by various subsequent editions, all of which had additions made to them. "This is one of the earliest and most important collections of voyages and travels and may be said to have opened a new era in the literary history of voyages and navigation. This work... was the first great systematic collection that had so far appeared" (Hill 1418). The first volume primarily deals with Africa and southern Asia. The second is concerned with Central Asia, Russia, and the Northern Seas, while the third volume is entirely devoted to America, and includes accounts of Peter Martyr, Oviedo (whose book XX is published here for the first time), Cortes, Cabeza de Vaca, Guzman, Ulloa, Coronado, Fray Marcos di Niza, Xerez, Verrazano and Cartier. The final section comprises the first general publication of Cartier's Canadian experiences.
The maps included in the work are quite significant. The Western Hemisphere map resulted from his collaboration with Oviedo, and is the most complete one of its time (it even shows Japan as a group of islands). The Newfoundland and Hochelanga maps, which resulted from Cartier's explorations, are the best early Canadian maps. The first edition of the third volume is the only edition printed before fire destroyed the original blocks in 1557. Later editions contain inferior recuts, making this edition particularly sought after. Although the first volume is a third edition (and issued after the fire), its maps here are in the original woodcut state instead of the later engraved state. Sabin mentions a similar set at Harvard with the woodcut state of the plates present as here.
"Ramusio, who truly earned the sobriquet of the Italian Hakluyt, was preëminent as an editor; he handled his material with great skill and produced acollection of unique value" (Penrose, Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance, 1420-1620, p. 306). Adams R-136 (vol. I); Alden & Landis 563/22, 606/87, 556/38; Borba de Moraes II:698-99; Church 99; Cox I, p. 28. Harrisse 304; See Hill 1418, 1420, 1421; JCB (3) I:222, JCB (3) II:42, JCB (3) I:94; Sabin 67732, 67739, 67740; see G.B.Parks "The contents and sources of Ramusio's Navigationi", Bulletin of the New York Public Library, 59, 1955, pp.279-313. (3)
3 volumes, 2
A FINE SET OF ONE OF THE OF THE EARLIEST AND MOST IMPORTANT SYSTEMATIC COLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS AND VOYAGES OF THE 16TH CENTURY. Mixed set (as often found): third edition of vol. I, fourth edition of vol. II, and FIRST EDITION of vol. III. This work was first published between 1550 and 1559, followed by various subsequent editions, all of which had additions made to them. "This is one of the earliest and most important collections of voyages and travels and may be said to have opened a new era in the literary history of voyages and navigation. This work... was the first great systematic collection that had so far appeared" (Hill 1418). The first volume primarily deals with Africa and southern Asia. The second is concerned with Central Asia, Russia, and the Northern Seas, while the third volume is entirely devoted to America, and includes accounts of Peter Martyr, Oviedo (whose book XX is published here for the first time), Cortes, Cabeza de Vaca, Guzman, Ulloa, Coronado, Fray Marcos di Niza, Xerez, Verrazano and Cartier. The final section comprises the first general publication of Cartier's Canadian experiences.
The maps included in the work are quite significant. The Western Hemisphere map resulted from his collaboration with Oviedo, and is the most complete one of its time (it even shows Japan as a group of islands). The Newfoundland and Hochelanga maps, which resulted from Cartier's explorations, are the best early Canadian maps. The first edition of the third volume is the only edition printed before fire destroyed the original blocks in 1557. Later editions contain inferior recuts, making this edition particularly sought after. Although the first volume is a third edition (and issued after the fire), its maps here are in the original woodcut state instead of the later engraved state. Sabin mentions a similar set at Harvard with the woodcut state of the plates present as here.
"Ramusio, who truly earned the sobriquet of the Italian Hakluyt, was preëminent as an editor; he handled his material with great skill and produced acollection of unique value" (Penrose, Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance, 1420-1620, p. 306). Adams R-136 (vol. I); Alden & Landis 563/22, 606/87, 556/38; Borba de Moraes II:698-99; Church 99; Cox I, p. 28. Harrisse 304; See Hill 1418, 1420, 1421; JCB (3) I:222, JCB (3) II:42, JCB (3) I:94; Sabin 67732, 67739, 67740; see G.B.Parks "The contents and sources of Ramusio's Navigationi", Bulletin of the New York Public Library, 59, 1955, pp.279-313. (3)