[Martyr, Peter]:

[HISTORIA DE L'INDIE OCCIDENTALI.] LIBRO VLTIMO

      [Venice]. 1534.. [15] leaves. Small quarto. Contemporary vellum. A few fox marks, trimmed close at the top. Else near fine, with a contemporary ownership inscription of a Jesuit priest on a rear fly leaf. The third part, here in a separate issue, of this important collection of voyages and narratives, the work of several authors, although most bibliographers attribute it to Peter Martyr, a translation of whose work makes up the first section. This is one of the first attempts anywhere to collect a group of accounts of travel and exploration. It was probably assembled for publication by the Venetian, Giovanni Ramusio, later famous for his much larger collection of NAVIGATIONI..., which began publication in 1554. The HISTORIA... is divided into three books. This third part contains the first obtainable edition of a translation of an anonymously written tract entitled LA CONQUISTA DE PERU, first published in Seville in 1534 of which only three copies survive. It gives the text of the tract in full. Both are among the first published accounts of the conquest of Peru. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 534/28. HARRISSE 190. CHURCH 69. ARENTS 3. JCB (3)I:114. SABIN 1565. STREETER SALE 13.