Books

Frankfurt & Oppenheim: Erasmus Kempffer [and many others],, 1601-33. A monument of early travel literature in a contemporary vellum binding First or second Latin editions; an unusually substantial set of the Small Voyages, one of the most magnificent voyage anthologies published in the Age of Discovery. The greatest single collection of early voyages to the East Indies, it also holds a wealth of cartographical and visual material on Africa, India, America, South Asia, and the Middle East, including the first Latin translation of Gasparo Balbi's travelogue, Viaggio dell' Indie Orientali. Within the genre of cosmographic literature, the beautiful engravings are the most distinctive feature of the Small Voyages. In contrast to Ramusio's Navigationi et Viaggi, Hakluyt's Principall Navigations, and Thevet's Cosmographie Universelle, "the size, number, and quality of the engravings in the De Bry volumes were unprecedented … Almost overnight the collection became indispensable for…