Books

A celebrated set of the first Latin editions of the initial nine parts of de Bry's Great Voyages, a cornerstone of any serious collection of travel books and one of the great collections of voyages published during the Golden Age of European exploration. For collectors of early Americana, it is one of the finest illustrated works depicting indigenous inhabitants of the Americas. The engraver and editor Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) fled the Spanish persecution of Flemish Protestants and lived in Strasbourg from 1570 to 1578 and then in Frankfurt am Main, where he established an engraving and publishing business. He twice visited London, where he executed a number of engraving commissions. A meeting with the great English geographer Richard Hakluyt, then preparing his own vast collection of voyages (published in 1598 as The Principal Navigations), piqued de Bry's interest and when he returned home he began the publication of his own series. After his death in 1598, the series was continued by his widow and two sons, Johann Theodor and Johann Israel, who in 1599 issued Parts VII and VIII, and, in 1602, Part IX. Seventeen years passed after the publication of Part IX, and volumes X through XIV were published between 1619 and 1634. The first part comprises the first work devoted to Virginia and the Carolinas and provides the best account of the first attempt at British colonization in the New World. The engravings form the best pictorial record of Native Americans before the 19th century, while the map is the first detailed depiction of the Carolina capes and coast. Part II collects accounts relating to the attempted settlement of Florida by French Protestants in the 1560s. As ethnographic documents, these are second only to those of John White as records of Native American life in the 16th century and, like White's work, the illustrations remained unrivalled until centuries later. Part III is made up of two accounts related to Brazil. The first is that of Hans Staden, a German mercenary in Portuguese service who was captured by the Tupi peoples. His is one of the first detailed accounts of South American indigenous peoples. Girolamo Benzoni's Historia de Mondo Nuovo (1565) and important history of the Spanish conquest of the West Indies, forms Parts IV, V, and VI. Part VII comprises Ulrich Schmidel's account of his travels to Brazil and Paraguay between 1535 and 1553, first published in the 1597 German edition of Part VII, printed two years earlier than the present Latin edition. Six different voyages form Part VIII: three by Sir Francis Drake, one by Thomas Cavendish, and two attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh. Drake's first voyage took place between 1577 and 1580. Part IX includes important accounts relating to Latin America and the Pacific, including the work of José de Acosta and the Pacific voyages of Oliver Van Noort and Sebald De Weert. Full details are available on request. Provenance: a) William Menzies (Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts and Engravings belonging to William Menzies... Prepared by Joseph Sabin, 1875, lot 244; b) Joseph W. Drexel; c) Lucy Wharton Drexel, bookplate; d) Boies Penrose, bookplate; e) Boies Penrose II, bookplate. Nine volumes, folio (336 x 235 mm). Late 19th-century dark blue morocco by Bedford, spines with six raised bands, gilt-lettered direct in the second and third compartments, others richly gilded, sides with concentric panels of gilt French fillets, inner panel with corner fleurons, gilt foliate turn-ins, swirled Nonpareil-pattern marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Complete with all plates and maps as called for; extra-illustrated with variant states of titles and plates and with an autograph note tipped to vol. 1 endpaper by Charles A. Cutter (librarian at the Boston Athenaeum, bibliographer of De Bry for the entry in In exceptional condition throughout. Sabin 8784.