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Key Properties

Edition: Early mixed set, Vol. I third edition (1563), Vol. II fourth edition (1583), Vol. III second edition (1565); the collection ran to six editions (Vol. III four) between 1550 and 1613

Language: Italian

Format: Folio, three volumes

Binding: Contemporary limp vellum; ancient titles in manuscript on the spines

Collation & Technical Description

In folio, 3 vols. Primo volume (third edition): 4 nn. lvs; 32 lvs; 394 lvs, with 3 folding woodcut maps (1554) and text engravings. Secondo volume (new edition): 256 lvs, no maps, with text engravings. Terzo volume: 456 lvs, with maps and text engravings.

Of particular note, the three woodcut maps in the first volume of this copy are in the FIRST state, engraved for the first 1554 edition of the Primo volume. Early editions such as this tend to carry excellent impressions of the woodblocks.

The maps are typical tabulae modernae, showing the discoveries made after Ptolemy. As Ramusio explains in his dedication to Girolamo Fracastoro, he had Giacomo Gastaldi, an excellent cosmographer, reduce a universal map to small scale and prepare further maps of the new world in the manner of Ptolemy but incorporating all that had become known. The three maps of the Primo volume bear a watermark similar to Woodward 157 (Woodward, 1996, p. 102); no watermark is found in the maps of the Terzo volume.

Gastaldi / Ramusio, Prima Tavola, 1554 (watermark: anchor in a circle; Karrow 30/73; Betz 4). First edition of the map, woodcut, with 11 lines of text on the verso (A gli studiosi di Geographia). Africa upside down (north at the bottom), with latitude and longitude scale. Among its firsts: the first printed book-map to show Madagascar and the first to show Lacus Niger; it places the southern tip of Africa correctly at 54° East.

Gastaldi / Ramusio, Seconda Tavola (watermark: anchor in a circle; Karrow 30/74). First edition; India and the Indian Ocean, upside down; woodcut, with latitude and longitude scale.

Gastaldi / Ramusio, Terza Tavola (watermark: anchor in a circle; Karrow 30/75). First edition; South-East Asia and the Far East, upside down; woodcut, with latitude and longitude scale. An important map of South-East Asia (see Suarez, The Mapping of South-East Asia, 1999, ch. 11).

Plan of Mexico (Vol. III, fol. 308 verso), one of the first printed images of the city, after the sketch first printed at Nuremberg in 1524 with Cortés's second letter.

Map of Nuova Francia (Burden 35; Kershaw 15a). The first map of New England, here in its second edition, probably by Giacomo Gastaldi.

Map of Brasil (Vol. III, lvs 427/28). One of the earliest printed maps of Brazil (preceded only by Gastaldi, 1548), here in its second state (re-engraved after the 1557 fire).

Map of Taprobane (Vol. III); Isola Spagnola (Vol. III, fol. 44).

Plan of Hochelaga (Vol. III) (Kershaw 17A). The third printed image of Canada and the first printed image of any Canadian city (Montreal), first printed 1556, here in its second state.

Parte del mondo ritrovata (Vol. III, lvs 455/56) (Burden 34). Woodcut map of the western hemisphere, second state, the first to show the places visited by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and the first depiction of the Sierra Nevada of California.

Condition

Though from different editions, this set has been together for a very long time, probably since the last volume was printed in 1583. It is a uniform set with only tiny differences in size, in identical binding. Ample margins throughout and a clear, strong impression. Minor wear only: a small spot here, a missing corner there, a tiny marginal wormhole, a few leaves loosening. A healthy, complete and original set that has not been restored or otherwise manipulated.

References & Bibliography

Adams R136; R139; R140; European Americana 563/22; 583/59; Church 99. Sabin 67732 (vol. I, 1563) and 67738 (vol. II, 1583). For the maps: Karrow (1993); Betz; Burden; Kershaw; Suarez (1999); Woodward (1996).

Description

The first broad collection of the early European voyages of discovery. The language is Italian. The first volume (third edition) is dedicated to Africa and Asia, together with Transylvanus' and Pigafetta's reports on Magellan's circumnavigation; the second (fourth edition) to Asia, including Poland and Russia; and the third (second edition) exclusively to the Americas.

The voyages collected here are usually translations and/or reprints of earlier original publications, though there are first publications and noteworthy versions among them. Ramusio was more than a collector: he translated the original texts into Italian himself and wrote short chapters commenting on the importance and trustworthiness of the accounts. The maps are thought to have been designed by Giacomo Gastaldi.

Giovanni Battista Ramusio, a Venetian, served the government (as secretary of the Council of Ten) for most of his life. He travelled widely, became deeply versed in geography, and chose his friends well.

Primo volume (third edition). Forty-five treatises on the European discovery of Africa and Asia, plus Magellan's circumnavigation, with three maps (Africa; Asia; the Far East). It opens with Leo Africanus' description of Africa and the voyages of Cadamosto (1455 & 1456) and da Sintra; further African pieces include the Pedro and Francesco Álvarez treatises on the origin of the Nile and Prester John in Ethiopia. On Asia there is the journal of Vasco da Gama, Varthema (Barthema Bolognese), Duarte Barbosa on Asia and de Barros on the Portuguese conquest of Asia; finally Transylvanus' and Pigafetta's accounts of Magellan.

Secondo volume (new edition). Begins with Marco Polo's three books with commentaries, then concentrates on Venetian voyages to Persia, Tartary and Cathay (China), with some shipwrecks, and includes Giovio's Moscovia. Two parts are added in these later editions: essays on Moscovia and Persia, including Odoric's voyage; and essays on the Zeno brothers' northern exploration and Sebastian Cabot's northern voyages, with two texts on Sarmatia (Poland) by Alessandro Guagnino and Maciej of Miechów.

Terzo volume. Opens with Peter Martyr and Gonzalo de Oviedo, two famous contemporary historians of the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Martyr's text is the Italian translation of his Enchiridion (Basel, 1521); Oviedo's Historia natural de las Indias (1526) and Historia general de las Indias are both translated here. These are followed by the second, third and fourth cartas de relación of Hernán Cortés; the ordeal of Cabeza de Vaca in the southern USA; the explorations of Vázquez de Coronado northward from the Colorado; Xérez's report on Pizarro's conquest of Peru; and Oviedo's version of the exploration of the Marañón (Amazon).

Historical Significance

As a broad overview of the early voyages of discovery, Ramusio's collection is preceded only by Montalboddo (1507) and Grynaeus (1532). It ran through six editions (the third volume four) between 1550 and 1613. The original woodblocks were destroyed in the fire at the Giunta printing office in November 1557 and thereafter re-engraved with slight differences; early sets such as this carry excellent impressions, and the first-state maps in the first volume make this copy especially desirable.

Provenance

Old ownership entry on the title-page (…Castellon) and an illegible seal on the title-page of the first volume; old, long-since effaced ownership entries (Ex Bibliotheca…) on the flyleaves of volumes II and III. Includes a letter by one Thomas Iunta, dated 1739.