ITINERARIUM PORTUGALLENSIUM E LUSITANIA IN INDIAM ET INDE IN OCCIDENTEM ET DEMUM AD AQUILONEM.
Montalboddo Fracanzano, Antonio:
[Milan: J.A. Scinzenzeler], 1508. Eight unnumbered leaves and eighty-eight numbered leaves. The two-leaf index, often missing, is supplied here in expert facsimile. Large woodcut map of Africa, southern Europe, and western Asia taking up most of the titlepage (second, corrected, issue with the Red Sea correctly named "Sinus Arabicus"). Small folio. Modern blue morocco by Riviere & Son, spine gilt and with raised bands, expertly rebacked, gilt inner dentelles, a.e.g. First three letters of title in expert pen facsimile, two other letters strengthened in pen. An occasional bit of minor worming, almost entirely confined to the side margins, touching the printed marginalia in a few instances. A very good copy. This copy bears the bookplates of noted voyage collector and scholar Boies Penrose, with his ink notes on the front pastedown. A monument in the history of voyages, this is the second issue of the first Latin- language edition of the first-ever printed collection of voyages. It is one of the most important collections of voyages ever printed, and a landmark in the field of Americana. This Milan 1508 edition is of even more importance for the large woodcut map, printed on most of the titlepage, showing all of Africa and much of southern Europe and western Asia. The earliest known map of Africa in which the entire continent is represented as surrounded by the ocean, this second issue of the map is distinguished by correctly naming the Red Sea as "Sinus Arabicus" (in the first issue it is denoted as "Sinus Persicus"). Montalboddo's work was first published in Italian in Vicenza in 1507, and this Latin edition, translated by the Milanese monk, Archangelo Madrignano, appeared the following year. Montalboddo's title promises accounts of "new unknown countries and a new world recently discovered." Sabin remarks that "unlike most modern works, its contents exceed the promise of its title." Montalboddo's collection is of primary interest for Americanists in its extremely early relation of the first three voyages of Columbus, and of the third voyage of Vespucci, in 1501-2. The importance of the Columbus and Vespucci accounts, however, should not overshadow the other important accounts of exploration in the Americas contained herein. Pedro Alvares Cabral's discovery of Brazil and further explorations in Africa and India in 1500-1 was first published in Montalboddo's collection. Furthermore, Gaspar Corte-Real's voyage in 1500 to the North Atlantic, during which he reached the coast of Greenland, is recounted in a letter by the Venetian ambassador to Portugal, who accompanied the explorer. Also included are accounts of the voyages of Alvise da Cadamosto to Cape Verde and Senegal in 1456, which appears for the first time in this collected work; Vasco da Gama's explorations of Africa and India in 1497-99; and the explorations of de Cintra in 1462, and of Alonso Nino and Pinzon. Letters by Venetian spies in Portugal, written in 1501-2 are printed as well. Henry Harrisse, among the foremost students of Montalboddo's work, calls it "the most important collection of voyages, and, in the absence of the LIBRETTO of Vercellese, now lost, the earliest...[It is] a trustworthy and interesting source of information." According to the Church catalogue, two copies of the LIBRETTO of 1504 are now known, a complete copy at the John Carter Brown Library, and a copy lacking the titlepage at the Marciana Library in Venice. The LIBRETTO, however, only contains accounts of Columbus' voyages, and so it is still accurate to call the Montalboddo the first ever collection of diverse voyages (Harrisse never saw it). Harrisse notes that the two- page index "is said to be rarely found, either at the beginning or the end of the volume." Furthermore, Maggs Bros., in their offering of a Milan, 1508, Montalboddo in 1929 (priced £375), notes that "the index was apparently printed after the publication of the work and inserted into the few available copies, and so is almost invariably missing." The index is present here in an expert printed facsimile. "It may be regarded as foremost among the books to spread news of the discoveries in Asia and America to readers in Europe" - Bell. "This book is not a jewel, it is a cluster of jewels" - Rodrigues. "After Columbus' letters, this is the most important contribution to the early history of American discovery" - Sabin. "It is evident from the contents, and as Rodrigues observes, that everything in this book of great importance...A work of the greatest interest for Brazilians" - Borba de Moraes. Lawrence Wroth, quoted in AMERICANA BEGINNINGS, says Montalboddo's collection "has done more than any single agency to disseminate throughout Europe knowledge of the New Worlds of the West, the far South, and the far East." "The most important vehicle for the dissemination throughout Renaissance Europe of the news of the great discoveries both in the east and the west" - PMM. "One of the most important contributions to the early history of America" - Church catalogue. EUROPEAN AMERICANA locates only twelve institutional copies of this Milan edition. "This book is of excessive rarity" - Sabin. A handsomely printed edition with an extremely important map of Africa and western Asia. Very rare on the market, very desirable, and of primary importance in the history of the exploration of the Americas and of the first European penetration into the Far East and Africa. CHURCH 27. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 508/4. PRINTING AND THE MIND OF MAN 42. SABIN 50058. HARRISSE (BAV) 58. BORBA DE MORAES, p.580. PENROSE SALE 172 (this copy). RODRIGUES 1295. JCB (3)I:46. BRUNET 3/474. LeCLERC 2808. BELL F169. STREIT XV:713. STREETER, AMERICANA BEGINNINGS 3 (1507 ed). Lach, ASIA IN THE MAKING OF EUROPE I, pp.163- 64. MAGGS 519:24.
(Item ID: WRCAM38500) $275,000.00
(Item ID: WRCAM38500) $275,000.00
Esta obra é extremamente rara e valiosa nesta edição. Fundamental para quem se dedica a estudar os descobrimentos portugueses.
Poderá consultar também:
