Paris, Arthus Bertrand, 1840.. 2 works in 1 volume. 8¡, contemporary crimson half straight-grained morocco (slight wear), smooth spine tooled in blind with gilt letter. Scattered light foxing. Overall in fine to very fine condition. Old ink annotation on pastedown ("X.l.43"). xv, 269 pp. *** First edition thus: Chapters 1-13 form "one of the basic sources for the earliest history of the New World" (Servies 12). It includes details on the kingdom of Nicaragua; the religious and marriage rites of the Indians; the region's lakes; Masaya and other volcanoes; mineral wealth (sulfur, alum); the relation of Fr. Blas del Castillo, a Dominican, on Masaya, followed by Oviedo's thoughts on it; and an account of the author's visit to the cacique of Tezoatega in 1523. The first edition of La historia general de las Indias (Seville, 1535) included the first part (Books 1-19) and portions of Book 50. Oviedo himself said that the first part was translated into Italian, French, German, Latin, Greek, Turkish, and Arabic. The first complete edition of all three parts of the work (in 50 books) appeared in Madrid, 1851-1855. Gonzalo Fernndez de Oviedo y Valdz (Madrid 1478-Valladolid, 1557) participated in the Spanish colonization of the Caribbean; his chronicle is one of the few surviving primary sources about it (although it was denounced by Fr. Bartolom de las Casas). A nobleman educated at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, he was a page and a courtier before being appointed supervisor of gold smelting at Santo Domingo in 1514. When he returned to Spain in 1523, he became historiographer of the Indies. Before his death, he visited the Americas five more times. Henri Ternaux-Compans (Paris 1807-Paris, 1864) was the first major collector of Americana. Scion of a wealthy French merchant family, he devoted several years to traveling through Spain and South America, collecting materials for a 20-volume series of works concerning the discovery and early history of South America that began to appear in 1836. For this volume he provided a brief biography and bibliography of Oviedo (pp. [vii]-xv). *** Cf. Servies, Bibliography of Florida n¼Ê12. Jisc locates copies at Oxford University and Cambridge University. *** BOUND WITH: Recueil de pieces sur la Floride. H. Ternaux-Compans, editor. Voyages, relations et memoires originaux pour servir lÕhistoire de la dcouverte de lÕAmrique, publis pour la premire fois en franais. Paris: Arthus Bertrand, 1841. 8¼, (4 ll.), 368 pp. A collection of 12 sixteenth-century documents, many published here for the first time. Authors include Panfilo de Narvez, (1527); Hernando d'Escalente Fontaneda; Hernando de Soto (1539); Luis Hernandez de Biedma on de Soto's voyage (1544); Gregorio de Beteta; Guido de las Bazaraes (1559); Luis de Velasco (1559); Lopez de Mendoza Grajales (1565); a 1565 anonymous letter; Nicolas Le Challeux on Ribaut's voyage, published 1566; Dominique de Gourgues, (1568?). Ternaux-Compans published these because of the early interest of France in Florida. * Servies 2660. Howes T104. Field 1542.
