Cortes, Hernando.

Estimate

4,000 - 6,000 GBP

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Description

De Insulis nuper inventis Ferdinandi Cortesii ad Carolum V. Rom. Imperatorem narrationes, cum alio quodam Petri Martyris ad Clementem VII Pontificem Maximum consimilis argumenti libello. Cologne: Melchior Novesianus, 1532
paper

Folio (293 x 197mm.), title with woodcut portrait of Charles V within border composed of coats-of-arms, portrait repeated twice in text, woodcut printer's device at end, late nineteenth-century calf-backed boards, [Church I, 63; Palau 63192; Sabin 16949], section cut from blank margin at head of title page, occasional slight spotting or soiling, head of spine chipped

Provenance

Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth, bookplate (sale Christie's, 24 Feb. 1982, lot 531)

Catalogue Note

Cortes wrote five letters between 1519 and 1526 chronicling his travels and conquests in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. They constitute one of the central documents in the conquest of Mexico and early history of America. This work contains his second and third letters, with a detailed description of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), Montezuma and his wealth, and the events as they unfolded.

Originally published soon after they arrived in Spain, the publication of the letters in Spanish was banned in 1527. This edition is the second Latin edition, and contains also Peter Martyr's De Insulis, and other letters from Martin de Valencia and Bishop Zumarraga.