Novus Orbis Regionum Insularum Veteribus Incognitarum. [A New World of Islands Unknown to the Ancients]

Basel: Johannes Hervagen, 1537. Folio. (12 1/2 x 8 inches). Augmented edition. a-d4 a-z6 A-Z6 Aa-Dd6 [Ee]2. [24] [1]-599 [1]. 624 pp. Lacking the woodcut world map attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger and Sebastian Münster. Woodcut printer's devices on title and verso of last leaf, historiated initials, head and tail pieces, woodcut illustrations on pp. 127-29. Title, Contents, Dedication, Grynaeus's Text, Index, Texts. Contemporary ink manuscript annotations in margins. Contemporary full limp vellum with brown ink manuscript title on spine and remanants of two pairs of leather ties, with pill-shaped watermark on laid paper, a blue cloth clamshell box with gilt-lettered leather titling-piece on spine

A fine example of the most influential collection of early sixteenth-century travel literature.

Besides the three voyages of Columbus, the present work includes descriptions of those of Petrus Alonzo and Pinzo, three of Vespucci's four voyages, and Peter Martyr's De Insulis Nuper Inventis. According to Borba, the present edition is the first to contain the letter of Maximilian of Transylvania reporting the news of Magellan's voyage (p. 585). This augmented edition holds the second and third letters of Cortes, and selected letters of Juan Zumarraga, the first Archbishop of Mexico. Though the account of Magellan's voyage was originally published in 1522 in a 16-leaf ephemeral edition of a letter addressed to Charles V, its appearance in Grynaeus's collection of voyages marks the first time his landmark discoveries appear in an historical context side-by-side with those of Columbus, Vespucci, and the Portuguese navigators.

Adams G1337. Alden 537/14. Borba I. Burmeister 62. Church 123. Harrisse 223. Sabin 34103. European Americana 537/14.