VESPUCCI Amerigo Mundus Novus.

Borba de Moraes, II,  p.909  ; Church, 17; Alden, European Americana, 504/8; Harrisse, BAV, 23; JCB, I:40; Jones, Adventures in Americana, 7; Medina, BHA, 22; Sabin, 99331.

A primary account of the discovery of the New World, and the first to describe it as such, by the man after whom the Americas would be named. It is the first printed account of Brazil, and Vespucci’s first published work about his American voyages.

In this crucial epistolary report, Amerigo Vespucci informed his patron, Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de’ Medici, about his third voyage to the West, carried out in the service of King Emmanuel of Portugal between May 1501 and September 1502.

“To Brazilians this letter is of unique importance. It describes Vespucci’s voyage along the coast of Brazil during 1501 and 1502, a voyage that has never been disputed even by Portuguese historians” Borba de Moraes.

The expedition reached the coast of South America, near Cape St. Roque, and kept coasting southward, possibly sailing as far as 50° south latitude. Coming ashore, Vespucci met natives of both sexes, whom he describes as naked cannibals wearing colorful ornaments in their perforated ears, noses, and lips. He describes their shameless sexual practices and speculates that they lived much longer than Europeans. Spending almost a month ashore, he also describes houses, hammocks, customs, and eating habits. Vespucci particularly notes the new things in America, unlike any things seen before in Europe. He discusses animals and plants, some of which he compares to Old World things, and others that are wholly new. Likewise, he observes that the very sky of the Southern Hemisphere was different. As a skilled astronomer, Vespucci was the first to measure the positions of the most important southern stars, including Canopus. A brief description of them, along with three star diagrams, appears for the first time in this work.

Vespucci was a Florentine, whose career was primarily as an agent of the Medicis. He went to Barcelona in their employ in 1489, and to Seville in 1493. He was probably involved in equipping the ships for Columbus’ second voyage, and went on his own first voyage in 1497 and second in 1499 under the Spanish flag. He switched to the Portuguese for this third voyage.

What we know of Vespucci’s voyages comes from two letters by him. The first, printed here, is a letter by him to his patron, Lorenzo de’ Medici, about the third voyage, originally written in 1503. The other letter, to Piero Soderini, was made in late 1504 and describes the first four voyages. The 1503 manuscript letter (the original is now lost) appeared in print first in Paris in the same year, and then in Augsburg, Venice, and Rome in 1504.

The present copy is the 1504 Rome edition, printed by Eucharius Silber, mistakenly attributed to a Parisian printer by Church and John Carter Brown catalogues. As Sabin notes, however, the type matches that which was used by Silber in his 1493 printing of the Columbus letter, a fact discovered during the cataloguing of the Hoe copy for his auction. Sabin and Alden & Landis assign final priority to the Rome imprint of the 1504 editions, though all are equally rare and desirable.

 A foundational Americanum, announcing the discovery of the New World, and an outstanding rarity.

Scattered contemporary ink annotations. Light tanning and foxing, a few stray ink marks. A very good copy.