OVIEDO Y VALDÉS, Gonzalo Fernandez de (1478-1557)

OVIEDO Y VALDÉS, Gonzalo Fernandez de (1478-1557) -- XERÉZ, Francisco de (b. 1500). Coronica de las Indias. La hystoria general de las Indias . y con la conquista del Peru. [With:] Conquista del Peru. Verdadera relacion de la conquista del Peru y provincia del Cuzco llamada la nueva Castilla.Salamanca : Juan de Junta, 1547. 2 works in one volume. Folio (278 x 194 mm), each separately titled and paginated. [4], 192 ff.; 22, [1] ff. (of 24, final blank removed, f. 17 in facsimile). Gothic types, double column. The first (Oviedo) title printed in red beneath large woodcut arms of Spain, within three-part woodcut border, 29 column-width woodcuts in the text, woodcut initials. The second (Xeréz) title within three-part woodcut border from same blocks differently arranged, with small woodcut of an army besieging a city, woodcut initials. Modern blind-stamped goatskin. Condition: final blank removed, the first work with upper third of title backed, wormhole in lower margin of first 3 leaves, f.17 in facsimile, six leaves with headlines shaved, faint dampstains in some upper margins, dampstaining to corners at end of first work, small hole in f. i7 with loss to a few letters; Xeréz with f. xvii [c1] in facsimile and title-leaf with dark stain on recto and verso, with some possible facsimile, a few holes in f. 22, some staining throughout. Acquisition: purchased from Maggs Bros. Ltd., (1994), $9,945. a rare copy of these two important works often found bound together. only one copy has appeared at auction in the last 30 years. The Oviedo, a rare second edition, is an invaluable history of the New World, an essential Americanum despite its intrinsic pro-Spanish bias. Oviedo, courtier and eventually official historiographer to the Spanish court, is considered the "dean of the Spanish historians of the discovery and conquest of the Indies" (J. B. de Avalle-Arce, "Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés: Chronicler of the Indies," in P. Galloway, ed. The Hernando de Soto Expedition, 2005, p. 369). One of the first books to describe the pineapple (and containing the first illustration of that fruit), hammocks, and tobacco, and other New World flora and fauna, Oviedo's history relates the voyages of Columbus, the later history of Santo Domingo, the exploration of the Yucatan, and contains important descriptions of the natural history of the Americas. The somewhat schematic woodcuts include a scene of natives panning for gold, various American plants including several cacti and other exotic fruits, and a crocodile. Oviedo spent 34 tyears in Central America and the Caribbean from 1514, and from 1523 he was historiographer of the Indies which gave him special access to documents in Spain for research. He also witnessed the departure of Mendoza's expedition from Seville in 1534. Xeréz's history of the conquest of Peru, first published in 1534, is sometimes found on its own. It was written at the request of Pizarro by a contemporary witness. Xerez was secretary to Pizarro. European Americana 547/15 and 543/17; BM/STC Spanish p. 35; Sabin 57989 & 105723; Medina BHA 131-130; Arents collection I:209, 4a.

AE Footnotes [7]