Novus Orbis Seu Descriptionis Indiae Occidentalis Libri XVIII....
Item #75102
LAET, Johannes de. Novus Orbis Seu Descriptionis Indiae Occidentalis Libri XVIII.... Leiden: Elzevier, 1633. [32],690,[18]pp. plus fourteen double-page maps by Hessel Gerritsz. Sixty-eight woodcuts in text, illustrating plants, animals, and inhabitants of the New World. Half title. Engraved title with elaborate emblematic and architectonic border, with date altered in manuscript to "1688." Folio. Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt, raised bands, textblock edges stained red. Spine ends repaired, moderate edge wear, joints a bit worn. Some foxing and toning, occasional tanning, small unobtrusive marginal repair to most maps. Overall very good. The first Latin edition of "arguably the finest description of the Americas published in the seventeenth century" - Burden. The maps include the first to use the names Manhattan, New Amsterdam (for New York), and Massachusetts, and one of the foundational maps of Canada. This work is one of the most important 17th-century New World histories. It is a cornucopia of early knowledge of the Americas and was compiled by Joannes de Laet, a director of the newly formed Dutch West India Company, with access to all the latest geographic knowledge. Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix, writing in the 18th century, noted that the work as a whole "is full of the most excellent and curious details of the natural history, and the character, manners, and customs of the American aborigines, derived from the reports of the European mission establishments in America." The text includes various specimens of indigenous language vocabularies, including Huron, Nahuatl, Quechua, Tupi, and Arawak. "One of the most famous contemporary descriptions of the natural history of the New World. The work was highly praised a century later by Charlevoix, attesting to its accuracy.... Winsor referred to Laet's book as the standard seventeenth-century work on New Netherland" - Streeter. The present first edition in Latin was preceded by two editions in Dutch (the first of which was published in 1625). De Laet continued to add to and improve the work throughout his lifetime: the present edition contains fourteen maps as opposed to the ten in the 1625 edition, and the text has been considerably expanded. The maps are by Hessel Gerritsz and are some of the very best to appear up to that ti.
Price: $25,000.00