José Gumilla | El Orinoco ilustrado, Madrid, 1745, 2 volumes

José Gumilla

Orinoco ilustrado, y defendido, historia natural, civil, y geographica de este gran rio, y de sus caudalosas vertientes; govierno, usos, y costumbres de los Indios sus habitadores, con nuevas, y utiles noticias de animales, arboles, frutos, aceytes, resinas, yervas, y raices medicinales... Secunda impression, revista, y aumentada por su mismo autor, y dividida en dos partes. Madrid: Manuel Fernandez, 1745

Second (enlarged) edition, 2 volumes, 4to (220 x 150mm.), large engraved folding map of the Orinoco, 2 engraved plates, contemporary limp vellum, contemporary manuscript titles to spine, remains of ties, some light spotting to title and index in volume 2, upper hinge of volume 2 starting

A FINE COPY. José Gumilla (1686-1750), a Spanish Jesuit, stayed for 30 years at the Orinoco missions and was the first to publish a comprehensive account on the Orinoco river, its people, tribes and natural history. "The work of father Gumilla is one of the most curious and interesting hitherto published upon the country of the Orinoco" (Sabin 29276). "He travelled widely on the Middle Orinoco and had ascended to Apure, Arauca and Meta rivers... and in 1741 published what was the first descriptive account of the Orinoco and its tributaries... In his book Gumilla spoke bitterly of the slave traders who invaded his country" (Howgego p. 464). The present work is based on Gumilla's personal observations as well as material he found in manuscripts left by fathers Mercado and Ribera.

LITERATURE:

Sabin, 29275-6; Howgego, 464; Leclerc 1471