Voyages, Relations et Mémoires originaux pour servir à l'histoire de la découverte de l'Amérique

Henri Ternaux-Compans was one of the first collectors of Hispanic-Americana

20 volumes bound in 10. Volume I: Narration du premier voyage de Nicolas Federmann le Jeune, d'Ulm (1557) 227 pages bound with Volume II: Histoire de la province de Sancta-Cruz / par Pero de Magalhanes de Gandavo (1576)162 pages. Volume III: Histoire d'un pays situé dans le nouveau monde, nommé Amérique / par Hans Staden de Homberg, en Hesse (1557) 335 pages bound with Volume IV: Relation véridique de la conquête du Pérou et de la province du Cuzco, nommée Nouvelle-Castille / par François Xérès (1547) viii+198 pages. Volume V: Histoire véritable d'un voyage curieux / fait par Ulrich Schmidel de Straubing (1599) 264 pages bound with Volume VI: Commentaires d'Alvar Nuñez de Cabeça de Vaca, adelantade et gouverneur du Rio de La Plata (1555) 507 pages. Volume VII: Relation et naufrages d'Alvar Nuñez de Cabeça de Vaca, adelantade et gouverneur du Rio de La Plata (1555) 302 pages bound with Volume VIII: Cruautés horribles des conquérants du Mexique: mémoire / de Don Fernando d'Alva Ixtlilxochitl (1829) 312 pages. Volume IX: Relation du voyage de Cibola entrepris en 1540 / par Pédro de Castañeda de Nagera xvi+392 pages with appendix bound with Volume X: Recueil de pièces relatives à la conquête du Mexique vi+472 pages. Volume XI: Rapport sur les différentes classes de chefs de la Nouvelle-Espagne ... / par Alonso de Zurita 418 pages bound with Volume XII, [part 1]: Histoire des Chichimèques ou des anciens rois de Tezcuco / par don Fernando d'Alva Ixtlilxochitl, traduite sur le manuscrit espagnol ... inédite xvi+380 pages with appendix. Volume XIII [part 2]: Histoire des Chichimèques ou des anciens rois de Tezcuco/ par don Fernando d'Alva Ixtlilxochitl, traduite sur le manuscrit espagnol ... inédite 357 pages bound with Volume XIV: Histoire du Nicaragua/ par Gonzalo Fernandez de Ovideo y Valdés xvi+269 pages. Volume XV: Histoire du Pérou / par Miguel Cavello de Balboa viii+334 pages bound with Volume XVI: Pièces sur le Mexique viii+346 pages. Volume XVII: Mémoires historiques sur l'ancien Pérou/ par le Licencié Fernando Montesinos xvi+235 pages bound with Volume XVIII: Histoire du royaume de Quito/ par don Juan de Velasco [Parte 1] x+391 pages. Volume 19: Histoire du royaume de Quito/ par don Juan de Velasco 356 pages bound with Volume XX: Recueil de pièces sur la Floride [Parte 2] 368 pages. Octavos (8 ½" x5 ½") bound in quarter leather with five raised spine bands with green labels in gilt lettering over blue marbled boards. Included two works by Henry Raup Wagner Henri Ternaux Compans; A Bibliography and Henri Ternaux Compans: The First Collector of Hispanic-Americana. First editions.

Henri Ternaux de Compans, born of a wealthy family, was educated in Germany, primarily at Göttingen. He coupled his singular aptitude for foreign languages with the pursuit of a diplomatic career, and while traveling in America, he became interested in its early Spanish colonial history. Subsequently, he distinguished himself as a bibliographer in the field with his Bibliothèque américaine (1838), arranged chronologically from 1493 to 1700 in 191 quarto pages with 1,153 entries. He published French translations of a few of the Muñoz papers in two series, in twenty volumes altogether under the title Voyages, relations et mémoires originaux por servir à l'histoire de la découverte de l'Amérique (1837). Ternaux-Compans collected vigorously in the two decades after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Ternaux-Compans was a career diplomat. Stationed in several South American countries during the 1820s and 1830s, he acquired many Latin American imprints of the colonial, independence, and early national periods, becoming "the first collector of Hispanic-Americana," according to his biographer Henry Wagner. That turned out to be fortunate for John Carter Brown as he was able to purchase many of Ternaux-Compans' offerings when his library was put up for sale in the 1840s. Some of those materials constituted and continue to constitute only known copies and form one of the bases of the John Carter Brown's extraordinarily rich Peruvian holdings. His Bibliothèque américaine was the first chronological listing and, therefore, the first historical bibliography of early Americana, and insofar as Latin America is concerned, the first bibliography compiled by an European other than a Spaniard. Although Ternaux-Compans's interests were wide ranging, he had a particular affinity for the prehistory of the New World as exemplified gods of the Aztecs. When his interest waned, and only thirty-seven, he offered his entire collection for sale, intending to free himself for a public career in Latin America. That was in 1844.

Condition:

Wonderfully rebound in quarter leather. Provenance of Academy of American Franciscan History with their stamp to titles. Foxing t preliminary pages else a very nice copy for a scare set. Due to the size and/or weight of this lot extra shipping and/or handling charges may apply.