First Substantial Account of the Conquest of Mexico
De nuper sub D. Carolo Repertis insulis, simulatque incolarum moribus...Enchiridion.
Basel: Adam Petri, 1521.
Price:
$50,000.00
First edition. Elaborate woodcut title compartment designed by Hans Franck, two woodcut initials. A-D4, E6; 43,[1, bl.]pp. Pages 20-21 misnumbered 24-25, as issued. 1 vols. 8vo. Modern wrappers. Early vellum tab at fore-edge, some sparse pencil marks, otherwise in very good condition. Housed in a quarter-morocco slipcase. Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection 1; Borba de Moraes, p.530; European Americana 521/1; Harrisse (BAV) 110; JCB (3) I:79; Medina (BHA) 62; Palau 12594; Sabin 1553; Stevens Nuggets 1802; Streeter Sale 8.
Item #374992
Peter Martyr's De nuper repertis insulis (On the islands recently discovered) is the first substantial printed account of the first three expeditions to Mexico and the discovery of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations. Including information from the lost first Cortés letter, it is a key work for the history of the New World from 1516 to 1520, including the conquest of Mexico and a description of Cuba. Indeed, with the loss of the first Cortés’ letter, this is the first authoritative account of that expedition as well as the preliminary explorations by Cordova and Grijalva which preceded it. In the bibliographical sequence of works related to the discovery of Mexico and conquest, Martyr’s De nuper repertis insulis is preceded only by the brief account in German printed in Nuremberg in 1520 and the account of Fr. Juan Diaz printed in Italian and Latin in 1520.
Cortés’ first letter remains unlocated, and is believed by some to have been suppressed by the Council for the Indies. Written in July of 1519, it would be the earliest account of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, including the founding of Vera Cruz; a letter written by the magistrates of that new settlement at the same time confirms what the contents would have been, and therefore the appropriateness of Martyr’s 1521 letter as a substitute. Historian and bibliographer Henry R. Wagner was long convinced that Lopez de Gomara was in possession of the letter, or at least a copy, when writing his seminal Historia, but that account of these events would not appear for another thirty-two years.
Martyr covers events from the discovery of the Yucatan to the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, providing details of the earlier expedition of Grijalva, recounting the first and second embassies to Montezuma, and the founding of Vera Cruz, in addition to descriptions of the landscape, cities, and indigenous cultures, including news of Mayan hieroglyphics. Much attention is paid to Aztec culture, including descriptions of the Aztec calendar, their use of writing and a thorough description of the physical construction of their books. Perhaps moved by news of their artistic and linguistic productions, Martyr also presages Las Casas in his concern for the native people, remarking with sadness on their reduction at the hands of the conquistadors through disease, famine, and mistreatment.
"This is Martyr's first narrative of the discovery made by Grijalva and the expedition of Cortés to Mexico, added to a fuller account of Cuba than was contained in his three decades already printed. Harrisse called this work an extract from the Fourth Decade, but it is evidently a much more important work, [with] Stevens and other authorities defining it as a substitute for the lost first Cortés letter. This work supplements, rather than overlaps other narratives by the author" (Streeter).
Not in Church. A remarkably important piece of Americana, the first authoritative account of Cortés' expedition to Mexico, recounting to Europe his exploits at the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the New World, as well as details of the Aztec Empire and its people.
Item #374992
Peter Martyr's De nuper repertis insulis (On the islands recently discovered) is the first substantial printed account of the first three expeditions to Mexico and the discovery of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations. Including information from the lost first Cortés letter, it is a key work for the history of the New World from 1516 to 1520, including the conquest of Mexico and a description of Cuba. Indeed, with the loss of the first Cortés’ letter, this is the first authoritative account of that expedition as well as the preliminary explorations by Cordova and Grijalva which preceded it. In the bibliographical sequence of works related to the discovery of Mexico and conquest, Martyr’s De nuper repertis insulis is preceded only by the brief account in German printed in Nuremberg in 1520 and the account of Fr. Juan Diaz printed in Italian and Latin in 1520.
Cortés’ first letter remains unlocated, and is believed by some to have been suppressed by the Council for the Indies. Written in July of 1519, it would be the earliest account of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, including the founding of Vera Cruz; a letter written by the magistrates of that new settlement at the same time confirms what the contents would have been, and therefore the appropriateness of Martyr’s 1521 letter as a substitute. Historian and bibliographer Henry R. Wagner was long convinced that Lopez de Gomara was in possession of the letter, or at least a copy, when writing his seminal Historia, but that account of these events would not appear for another thirty-two years.
Martyr covers events from the discovery of the Yucatan to the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, providing details of the earlier expedition of Grijalva, recounting the first and second embassies to Montezuma, and the founding of Vera Cruz, in addition to descriptions of the landscape, cities, and indigenous cultures, including news of Mayan hieroglyphics. Much attention is paid to Aztec culture, including descriptions of the Aztec calendar, their use of writing and a thorough description of the physical construction of their books. Perhaps moved by news of their artistic and linguistic productions, Martyr also presages Las Casas in his concern for the native people, remarking with sadness on their reduction at the hands of the conquistadors through disease, famine, and mistreatment.
"This is Martyr's first narrative of the discovery made by Grijalva and the expedition of Cortés to Mexico, added to a fuller account of Cuba than was contained in his three decades already printed. Harrisse called this work an extract from the Fourth Decade, but it is evidently a much more important work, [with] Stevens and other authorities defining it as a substitute for the lost first Cortés letter. This work supplements, rather than overlaps other narratives by the author" (Streeter).
Not in Church. A remarkably important piece of Americana, the first authoritative account of Cortés' expedition to Mexico, recounting to Europe his exploits at the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the New World, as well as details of the Aztec Empire and its people.
