Books and Manuscripts

Venice: Lucantonio Giunta, 1565-83. In three volumes. Mixed edition (first volume: fourth edition, 1588; second volume: third edition, 1583; third volume: second edition, 1565). Folio. ff. (iv), 34, 394 (but 395), (1); (xviii) (but 16), (10), 256, 90; (vi), 34, 456; with rear blank in first volume, front and rear blanks in third volume, but lacking front blank in first volume and front and rear blanks in second volume. Illustrated with seven double-page woodcut maps, numerous full-page and in-text woodcut illustrations, woodcut devices on each title-page and on colophon of first and third volumes; without the three double-page maps of Africa, India, and Indochina sometimes found in first volume ("lacking in many others" Sabin). Old vellum, paper spine labels, possibly recased, wear to spine ends, repairs along spines; edges stained blue; endpapers renewed; scattered foxing and dampstaining to prelims and text, more predominant in second volume; 18th-century inscription on each title-page "Carmeli Leontini" (Carmelite monastery library in Lienz, Austria, dissolved in 1785); small ownership ink stamp of Karl Josef Hofinger on verso of final map in third volume, faint traces of same on each title-page. Sabin 67729 (Primo), 67738 (Secondo), 67741 (Terzo); USTC 851975 (Primo), 851974 (Secondo), 851972 (Terzo); Burden 24 and 25

A handsome set of Venetian Giovanni Batista Ramusio's highly influential and comprehensive collection of early travel narratives. Ramusio was a civil servant of the Venetian Republic, and with this work "brought together details of a large number of voyages to all parts of the world, indeed some are only known to us through it." (Burden) The first volume relates to Africa and the travels of Amerigo Vespucci, Vasco da Gama, Leo Africanus, and others; the second relates to Asia, with an account of Marco Polo, and the third, notably, covers the New World, with accounts of Cortez, Coronado, Pizarro, Verrazzano, and others. The third volume also includes seven important woodcut maps by Giacomo Gastaldi, and others, including "La Terra de Hochelaga"--the first plan of Montreal and the earliest printed plan of a North American settlement--and "La Nuova Francia"--the first map devoted to New England and New France.