[Gonzáles de Mendoza, Juan (1545-1618)]

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

The Historie of the great and mightie kingdome of China, and the situation thereof. Togither with the great riches, huge Citties, politike gouernement, and rare inuentions in the same. Translated out of Spanish by R[obert] Parke. London: I. Wolfe for Edward White, 1588

small 4to (181 x 132mm.), [8], [1]-410pp., Black Letter, illustration: woodcut head- and tailpieces and intials, 3 woodcut Chinese characters in text, binding: contemporary sheep, lacking final blank, title slightly soiled and chipped with small loss from outer margins (not affecting text), K6 with small rust hole in text with loss of a few letters, spine slightly worn

Literature

STC 12003; Cordier, Sinica 13; Sabin 27783 "It is so rare that we have never seen it"; cf. Lust 23-24

Catalogue Note

first edition in english. rare. one of the most important and influential elizabethan books of exploration and discovery.

The first edition in Spanish was published in Rome in 1585 and this translation is taken from the revised Madrid edition of 1586. It was translated by Robert Parke at the request and encouragement of Hakluyt, before the publication of his Principall Navigations. The first part contains an account of the fifteen provinces of China and includes descriptions of printing, fishing, artillery, marriage customs and criminals. There are also three woodcut Chinese letters, the first to appear in a European book. The second part is devoted to three expeditions: that of Martin de Rada, or de Harrada, to the Philippines in 1575, Pedro de Alfaro's journey in 1578, and that of Martin Ignacio de Loyola in 1581 containing his Commentarie of the New World; this describes Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rica, Jamaica, Santo Domingo and the Canaries.

Ortelius, in his atlas, declared that he received more information concerning America from this book than from any other.