PRAECLARA FERDINADI CORTESII DE NOVA MARIS OCEANI HYSPANIA NARRATIO.... [bound with:] DE REBUS, ET INSULIS NOVITER REPERTIS....
[Cortés, Hernando, and Peter Martyr]:
[Nuremberg: Fridericus Peypus], 1524. [4],49,[1],12 leaves, including two portraits, plus half of the folding map (the remainder of the folding map supplied in excellent facsimile). Tall quarto. Modern blindstamped calf in period style. Minor soiling in the text, else very good. The eastern portion of the map is present and in excellent condition; the western portion in superb facsimile. The first Latin edition of Cortés' second letter, after its original publication in Seville in 1522. The work was translated by Petrus Savorgnanus. This copy bears the portrait of Pope Clement VII on the verso of the fourth preliminary leaf, which is not found with all copies. Cortés' second letter, dated Oct. 30, 1520, provides a vivid account of the people he encountered and fought en route to Tenochtitlan, painting a picture of an impressive empire centered around a great city. He relates his scrape with rival Velazquez and gives a wonderful description of the buildings, institutions, and court at Tenochtitlan. It is here that Cortés provides a definitive name for the country, calling it "New Spain of the Ocean Sea." This letter is also important for making reference to Cortés' "lost" first letter, supposedly composed at Vera Cruz on July 10, 1520. Whether that letter was actually lost or suppressed by the Council of the Indies is unknown, but there is little doubt it once existed. The text is the first major announcement to the world of the discovery of major civilizations in the New World, and as such is a work of surpassing importance. As usual, the second letter is here bound with Peter Martyr's DE REBUS, ET INSULIS NOVITER REPERTIS..., which provides an account of the recently discovered islands of the West Indies and their inhabitants. It is often considered a substitute for the lost first Cortés letter. The extant portion of the extremely rare map shows the Gulf of Mexico, with a bevy of named rivers running into it. "[This] is the first accurate delineation of the Gulf of Mexico and the first to use the name Florida. In his letter Cortés claims that the delineation of the Mexico coast came from Montezuma himself" - Burden. Yucatan is erroneously depicted as an island, a mistake which would plague numerous future explorers and cartographers. The right-most portion of the map, which has been trimmed away, included the plan of the city of Mexico, considered to be the first printed depiction of an American city. This portion is supplied in expert facsimile. One of the most important early descriptions of Mexico and the first encounter of the West with the Aztec civilization, and a work of bedrock importance to the New World. No complete copy has appeared for sale since 1985. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 524/5. SABIN 16947. HARRISSE (BAV) 125. SANZ 933-934. MEDINA (BHA) 70. CHURCH 53. WINSOR 2:404. BURDEN 5. JCB GERMAN AMERICANA 524/4. STREETER SALE 190.
(Item ID: WRCAM32873) $57,500.00