The Decades

Eden, Richard

Verlag: Powell, 1555

Sabin 1561; JCB 1919: I.186; Church 102; Kraus: the first three English books on America, 1971.In small quarto, Contemporary calf binding with English blindstamp on both covers: a pelican plucking blood from her breast to feed her young. Spine renewed.24 nn lvs; 361 lvs plus one extra; 13 nn lvs (index and colophon).Condition: contemporary English full calf binding, restored. Leaf C2 of preliminaries and leaf 345 Afrikke and the 3 last leaves of the index in facsimile, printed on contemporary paper. Signs of use all through, some browning to the first 15 leaves. A few small wormholes filled usually without loss of text. Book block rebound. Provenance: The blind stamp on the covers show a familiar religious image: the pelican feeding her children with her own blood. An expert on early English bindings dr. David Pearson of the Rare Book School at Cambridge University (UK) tells us it is a late XVI century English binding. The image does not necessarily indicate the owner, printer or binder. The text around it needs further study but we read .keepeth the law…….good to the common wealth. The first is a quote from the bible, the Proverbs (29-18) the latter a quote from the Magna Carta. A later (1685) manuscript note gives the name of the owner as Richard Dyer not further identified.This is the first Sammelband of the most important sources of the voyages of discovery by Spain to the Americas in the English language. Its main corpus is the translation of Peter Martyr s first three Decades, as published in Spain in 1516. It also embraces Vespucci s discussion of the South Pole stars; Magellan s voyage around the world; Lopez de Gomara and Oviedo early histories on the Americas. It also includes the Popes bull of 1493, dividing the world to be discovered between Spain and Portugal and the discussions at Badajoz (1524) and Zaragoza (1529) that lead to the lease of the Moluccas to Portugal in 1529. Finally and on voyages to Moscovie.Martyr s first three decadas translated in English. The first decade is dedicated completely to Columbus first three voyages to the West and the so called minor voyages by Alonso Nino and the Pinzón brothers. The second decade follows Ojeda and Juan de la Cosa in northern Paria (=South America) and Vasco Nunez de Vaca and Enciso in Central America; Valdivia in the Darien and Pedro Arias in Central America. The third decade tells us about Vasco Nunez de Balboa in Central America and his discovery of the Pacific. His meetings with the caciques Thumaco and Chiapes, name givers of their respective regions. The fourth chapter of book three is dedicated to the fourth and last voyage of Columbus following the east coast of Central America upwards (Veragua). It reports on Sebastian Cabot s exploits in the North for the British; on the first voyage south under Juan de Solis in 1512 and the discovery of Florida by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513. There is a long description of Isla la Espanola and other Caribbean islands. The chapter ends with the second voyage by Solis south 30 degrees (la Plata river) in 1516. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 928

Bibliografische Details

Titel: The Decades
Verlag: Powell
Erscheinungsdatum: 1555
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Very Good