Bartolomé de las Casas | Narratio regionum indicarum per Hispanos quosdam devastatarum verissima. Frankfurt, 1598

Bartolomé de las Casas

Narratio regionum indicarum per Hispanos quosdam devastatarum verissima. Frankfurt: Theodor de Bry & Johannes Saur, 1598

4to (189 x 154mm), FIRST LATIN EDITION, title in engraved pictorial border, woodcut initials and headpieces, 17 engraved illustrations by Theodor de Bry after Joos van Winghe, contemporary speckled calf binding, spine gilt in compartments, some dampstaining, occasional spotting, upper cover nearly detached, some loss to spine, corners bumped, one corner frayed

This is the first edition of Narratio regionum indicarum to include the series of 17 graphic illustrations of the atrocities allegedly carried out by the Spanish in the New World. Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566), an early Spanish settler in the Americas, was a fervent advocate for the abolition of the encomienda and for the rights of the indigenous population.

PROVENANCE:

Barthold Steenhujis of Alkmaar, ownership inscription to title page and final page, dated 22 September 1610 (for other books owned by same author see archiviopossessori.it); Panshanger, seat of the Earls Cowper, bookplate, manuscript shelf mark '0,3,,5.'

LITERATURE:

VD16 C 1234; Sabin 11283