Giovanni Battista Ramusio | Delle navigationi et viaggi. Venice, 1563-1559-1606, 3 volumes, vellum

Giovanni Battista Ramusio

Primo volume, & terza editione delle navigationi et viaggi; Secondo volume; Volume terzo. Venice: (heirs of Lucantonio) Giunta, (January) 1563; 1559 (1558); 1606

3 volumes, folio (300 x 202mm.), woodcut devices on title-pages and final versos, woodcut initials, maps and illustrations, 10 double-page woodcut maps, with final blank at end of volume 1, later uniform vellum reusing liturgical manuscript leaves with added ink speckling, red edges, lacking e5-6 in volume 1 (part of index), map of Africa shaved, some light spotting, staining or browning, final leaf in vol.3 laid down, flyleaves of vol.3 damaged, joints cracking

A mixed edition of Ramusio's influential and comprehensive collection of travel accounts, the first such compilation of both historical and recent narratives of discovery, and declaring the habitability of the whole world. The first volume, containing the travels of the Portuguese navigators along Africa and to the Indian Ocean, first appeared in 1550; the third volume, with the travels and conquests of the Spanish in south and central America in 1556, and the second volume, with tales of the French journeys in north America, in 1559 (as here). It was also suggested that Ramusio had planned a fourth volume about the Southern Continent and Oceania, which was never written as he died in 1557.

Ramusio worked for the Venetian state, which most likely gave him access to recent travel reports and enabled him to make contacts through diplomatic channels, particularly with foreign envoys in Venice. He also had good scholarly credentials, being connected with the main literary circles in Venice and being competent in Latin and Greek; he had previously engaged on editorial work for Andrea Navagero, and is praised by Aldus Manutius in the preface to his 1514 edition of Quintilian.

LITERATURE:

Edit16 27274, 27248, -; Sabin 67732, 67736, 67742; USTC 4035955 (all 3 volumes from 1606 edition)

PROVENANCE:

Fernando Alvia de Castro (1572-1640, Inspector General of the Spanish navy and naval forces in Portugal, and political theorist), inscriptions on title-pages; unidentified purple ink stamps; Michael Sharpe, morocco booklabels