Giovanni Battista Ramusio

Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485 to 1557), secretary to the Senate and the Council of Ten of Venice, assembled the first great collection of voyages. Delle navigationi et viaggi appeared at Venice in three folio volumes: the first in 1550 (Africa, India, the East Indies, with Marco Polo and Pigafetta's account of Magellan's voyage), the third in 1556 (the New World, with Cortés, Oviedo, Cartier and Verrazzano) and the second, delayed by the fire in the Giunti printing house of 1557, in 1559. The collection was reprinted until 1613, and the volumes are usually found in sets of mixed editions.

The maps, most of them by Giacomo Gastaldi, are among the earliest printed maps of Brazil, the Saint Lawrence, New France and the whole of the New World; the woodcut plan of Hochelaga is the first printed view of a Canadian site. The editions differ in the maps they contain, which is why the bibliography of Sabin, Church, Burden and European Americana matters when comparing sets.

Our collection holds complete sets and single volumes in different editions, described volume by volume.