Details
MARTYR, PETER. Extraict ou Recueil des Isles nouvellement trouvees en la grand mer Oceane ou [sic] temps du Roy Despaigne Fernand & Elizabeth sa femme...Item trois Narrations: dont la premiere est de Cuba...Paris: Simon de Colines, 1532. Small 4to, late eighteenth-century red morocco, covers gilt-panelled, smooth spine gilt in six compartments, g.e., joints and corners slightly rubbed, covers lightly scuffed, first and last 2 leaves soiled, first few leaves marginally dampstained, occasional light spotting or foxing, a few leaves browned, small marginal hole to fol. h1, 1/2 inch marginal tear to A7, 3/4 inch marginal repair to A8. FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH, FIRST COLLECTION OF VOYAGES PRINTED IN FRENCH, italic type, 6- and 3-line criblé initial, ruled in red throughout.
"Peter Martyr [or Pietro Martire d'Anghiera, of Milan], the first historian of America, was a friend and contemporary of Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Hernando Cortes, Ferdinand Magellan, Sebastian Cabot, and Amerigo Vespucci. Through his friendship with these discoverers, as well as from his offical position as a member of the Council for the Indies in Spain, authentic documents were available to him, thereby gaining him much valuable information regarding discovereies made by the early navigators. His works were held in the highest esteem by his contemporaries and are indispensable as a primary source for the history of early American discoveries" (--Hill, p. 93).
This edition contains a somewhat abridged translation of Peter Martyr's first three Decades (from De orbo novo, first published in 1516 in Alcalá), and three "narrations," the first being a translation of the first edition (Basel 1521) of Martyr's fourth Decade; the second and third are abridged translations of the second and third Letters of Cortes, first published in 1524 at Nuremberg. Church 64; Sabin 1554 & 16952n; Brunet I, 293; Harrisse 167; Alden 532/1; Borba de Moraes [1983], p. 531. According to ABPC, the last copy to appear at auction was in 1955.
"Peter Martyr [or Pietro Martire d'Anghiera, of Milan], the first historian of America, was a friend and contemporary of Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Hernando Cortes, Ferdinand Magellan, Sebastian Cabot, and Amerigo Vespucci. Through his friendship with these discoverers, as well as from his offical position as a member of the Council for the Indies in Spain, authentic documents were available to him, thereby gaining him much valuable information regarding discovereies made by the early navigators. His works were held in the highest esteem by his contemporaries and are indispensable as a primary source for the history of early American discoveries" (--Hill, p. 93).
This edition contains a somewhat abridged translation of Peter Martyr's first three Decades (from De orbo novo, first published in 1516 in Alcalá), and three "narrations," the first being a translation of the first edition (Basel 1521) of Martyr's fourth Decade; the second and third are abridged translations of the second and third Letters of Cortes, first published in 1524 at Nuremberg. Church 64; Sabin 1554 & 16952n; Brunet I, 293; Harrisse 167; Alden 532/1; Borba de Moraes [1983], p. 531. According to ABPC, the last copy to appear at auction was in 1955.