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HERRERA Y TORDESILLAS, Antonio de (1559-1625) Desc

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Amsterdam: Michel Colin, 1622. 4to (300 x 190 mm). 254 pp., + original final blank. Additional engraved title with the first cartographic reference of California as an Island, engraved portrait of Jacob Le Maire, five three-quarter page engraved plates in the text of the Le Maire narrative depicting the expedition in Patagonia, a Polynesian sailing canoe, the anchorage at Cocos Island, natives at Cocos, and the isle of Hoorn. 17 engraved maps (16 double-page maps and one folding). Later calf, spine gilt in compartments with morocco label lettered in gilt. Condition: outer blank margin of title slightly creased and tattered, folding map of New Guinea browned with repairs, paper repairs to tail edges to map of Peru, map of Lima browned, *4 deckled at tail-edge; calf with some scuffs, corners rounded.. Acquisition: purchased from Reiss & Auvermann, 27 April 1994, lot 2650, $7,270. first edition in french of antonio de herrera's classic work 'novus orbis', an important narrative on the spanish conquests of the new world. This description of the West Indies is the first section of Herrera's Historia de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Ilyas y Tierra Firma del Mar Oceano was first published in Madrid 1601. It was translated into Latin and French and was published in both languages in Amsterdam in 1622, with only slight differences in their composition. Phillip II of Spain, in the last year of his reign appointed Herrera principal historiographer (cronista mayor) of America and Castile. Herrera remained in office until the reign of Philip IV. During this period, he had liberal access to many documents since lost, and the 1622 translations made his keystone work more generally available outside of Spain. 'Spain did permit some compilation and distribution of information concerning the New World, with the best work done by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, a well-educated and capable scholar who had rare access to the archives in Spain.... Using great care and discretion, Herrera worked through the voluminous archives that documented the early decades of Spanish discovery and exploration. [Herrera's monumental four-volume work] recorded Spain's New World activities from the time of Columbus through 1555." (Palau) Dutch mariner Jacob Le Maire's journal is one of the greatest early accounts on circumnavigation and Pacific exploration. His chronicle, in this present copy pp.107-75, is an account of his voyage of 1615 and 1616. Le Maire motivated by a zeal for trade and discovery, embarked on the search for 'Terra Australis'. His important voyage would later be known as the last of the seventeenth century expeditions to search for the unknown continent of the east. Le Maire was the first to round Cape Horn and thus found a route around South America that avoided the arduous route by the Strait of Magellan. He was responsible for extensive discovery of the Pacific; his invaluable maps are in exceptional detail. Sabin says that the rare Le Maire portrait is not found in this edition but it is nevertheless in this copy. A remarkable series of double-page maps including thirteen of North, Central and South America. Important early maps include those of the West Indies, the Americas, the coasts of Central and South America, Mexico, Tierra Firme, and the west coast of South America. The other four concern the Pacific and are particularly important as they detail Le Maire's route across the ocean with special concern for his visit to New Guinea and the Pacific Islands group. European Americana 622.67; Borba de Moraes I, p.400; Sabin 31543; Spence 587; Tiele-Muller 296.

AE Footnotes [9]

The map of South America is loose and laid-in.

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