Lery, Jean de (1534-1611).

Estimate

700 - 1,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Histoire d'un voyage fait en la terre du Bresil, dite Amerique. Geneva: the heirs of Eustache Vignon, 1600

8vo (172 x 107mm.), [72], 478, [2 blank], [16]pp., illustration: one woodcut folding plate, 8 woodcut illustrations (one repeated), binding: old vellum over boards, vellum spine liners, lacking d6, slightly stained, first and final leaves creased, folding plate torn (with some loss at foot) and creased, binding soiled

Literature

Sabin 40152; Borba de Moraes p.472

Catalogue Note

The printing history of Lery's account of his odyssey to Rio de Janeiro is complicated and controversial. The rare first edition appeared at La Rochelle in 1578 in two states. The second edition, also in two states, was published, like those that followed, in Geneva. It was in this edition that the folding plate of the Indian battle first appeared. The third edition of 1585 was the first to feature what was recognised as the first written example of Brazilian music, often (as is the case in this edition) reproduced in abbreviated form in later editions. The fourth edition of 1594 confusingly has "troisieme" on the title-page, a discrepancy that is continued through subsequent editions. The 1600 imprint is an exact reprint of the edition that had appeared the previous year, and is the sixth edition, despite having "quatrieme" on the title-page. There were two Dutch translations (1597 and 1706), one German (1794) and one Latin (1586), apparently by Lery himself.