ARGENSOLA B.L Conquista de las Malucas.

Palau, 16089 ; Medina, BHA, II, 551 ; Medina, Filipinas, 48 ; Pardo de Tavera, 121 ; Vindel, 2162; Salvá, 3349 ; Sabin, 1946 ; Retana, I, 67 ; Maggs, Spanish Books, 1927, p. 45, n° 54a.

Rare first edition relating the conquest of the Molucca islands. First edition of this history of Spain’s fight for control of the Moluccas.

It is regarded by Hill as an “essential work for the history of Spanish and Portuguese exploration in the East Indies,” Argensolas’s narrative is noted for its breadth of knowledge and over-all grasp of world politics”.

“In his digressions on people and places,” writes Lach (Asia in the making of Europe, III, pp. 311-12), “Argensola adds significantly to the stockpile of information on Asia, especially on the Moluccas, Java, Sumatra, and Ceylon. His book also ties together neatly the affairs of Europe with struggles in the overseas areas, for he sees the spice trade in its world wide ramifications and makes his reader acutely aware of its immediate and potential interest for Japan and China.”

“Su Conquista de Malucas es una obra importante para la historia de las poseciones españolas en Malasía, llena de datos curiosos para el estudio de aquellas razas… Es además, una excelente obra bajo el punto de vista literario, digno al fin de la pluma de tan distinguido escritor que se cuenta entre los mås notables de los siglos XVI y XVII” (Pardo de Tavera).

“Few narratives of [East] Indian affairs are written with so much judgement and elegance as his history of the conquest of the Molucca Islands” (cf. Bouterwek, cité par Sabin).

The work contains interesting information on Magellan’s travels.

Pages 15-19, contain an account of Fernand de Magellan’s last navigation, as well as the relation on the navigator’s tragic death together with companions Juan Serrano et Duarte Barbosa in the Philippines, at the end of April 1521.

The fine title page, engraved by Pieter Perret, within an architectural border is an allegory on the Molucca islands. Perret (1555 – 1639) was a pupil of Maarten de Vos and Gerard de Jode. After his debuts in Rome in the early 1580’s he settled in Madrid in 1583. Having returned to his native town Antwerp in 1590, he moved back to the Iberian Peninsula where he is known to have worked in Portugal (1600-1610) before moving back to Spain where he died in 1639.

A fine copy in its first binding. (Slight restorations to front and back covers, front-end papers renewed, small waterstain and restorations to inner margins of first quire not touching text).