Bry, Theodor de (comp. & ed.)

Americae Pars VIII. Continens primo, descriptionem trium itinerum nobilissimi et fortissimi equitis Francisci Draken, qui peragrato primum universuo terrarum orbe, ... Secundo, iter nobilissimi equitus Thomae Candisch ... tertio, duo itinera, nobilissimi & fortissimi domini Gualtheri Ralegh. [Frankfurt: Matthew Becker] for the widow and heirs of Theodor de Bry, 1599



2 parts in one volume, folio (13 1/8 x 9 in.; 333 x 229 mm). Roman and italic types, title-page with large engraved map of the world in two hemispheres with medallion portrait of Drake and track of his circumnavigation, folding engraved map of Guiana, section-title to illustrations with woodcut printer's device, 18 half-page engraved illustrations and city plans, historiated and decorative woodcut initials and head-pieces; title-page map and plate IX just shaved at fore-edges, tiny rusthole to BB3 costing 2 letters, unobtrusively washed, lacking blank e4. Limp vellum antique, overlapping fore-edges. Half brown morocco slipcase, chemise.

Burden, North America 130-131; European Americana 599/21; Church 165; Kraus, Drake 31; Sabin 8784; Shirley, World 219; Servie, Florida 87 

2 parts in one volume, folio (13 1/8 x 9 in.; 333 x 229 mm). Roman and italic types, title-page with large engraved map of the world in two hemispheres with medallion portrait of Drake and track of his circumnavigation, folding engraved map of Guiana, section-title to illustrations with woodcut printer's device, 18 half-page engraved illustrations and city plans, historiated and decorative woodcut initials and head-pieces; title-page map and plate IX just shaved at fore-edges, tiny rusthole to BB3 costing 2 letters, unobtrusively washed, lacking blank e4. Limp vellum antique, overlapping fore-edges. Half brown morocco slipcase, chemise.
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First de Bry edition in Latin, translated from a variety of English sources and published simultaneously with a German-language edition. Mixed issue: with the key numbers engraved in plates VI-IX; without the text maps on pages 78 (first pagination) and 3 (second pagnination); AA2 correctly signed.

De Bry's grand edition of the narratives of six different voyages by Drake, Cavendish, and Raleigh, including Drake's circumnavigation and Caribbean raids, Cavendish's circumnavigation, and Raleigh's celebrated search for El Dorado.

Americae Pars VIII is one of the most significant (and scarcest) of de Bry's celebrated compilations, providing an early and comprehensive description of the three major voyages of Sir Francis Drake. Of greatest significance is the relation of the 1577-1580 circumnavigation, based on the account of Nuno da Silva, which had previously been reported only by Hakluyt. Walter Bigges's narrative of Drake's Caribbean raid of 1585-1586 is also reprinted here, while his final voyage against the Spanish at Panama, 1595-1596, is fully described for the first time; the latter account is evidently based in part on Drake's own log. The engravings illustrating Drake's adventures include cityscapes after Baptista Boazio depicting the Englishman's captures of Santiago, Santo Domingo, Cartagena, and St. Augustine—the last being the earliest view of any North American city.

De Bry's account of Sir Thomas Cavendish's circumnavigation of 1586-1588 was taken from a Dutch narrative by Francis Pretty published in Amsterdam by Claeszoon just a few months earlier. The third portion of the volume recounts Sir Walter Raleigh's 1595 expedition to Guiana in search of El Dorado; the analogous excursion by Laurence Kemys the following year is also described, but erroneously credited to Raleigh.