About this Item
Third edition in Spanish and the earliest feasibly obtainable in that language. Of the various early versions of Marco Polo, this is of exceptional importance for Santaella's suggestion in the introduction that the regions visited by Polo in Asia were geographically distinct from the lands newly discovered by Columbus. Santaella's introduction, titled "Cosmographia," is a survey of the known parts of the world. Challenging the traditional tripartite conception of the continents (Africa, Europe, Asia), Santaella posited the distinction between East and West Indies on the basis of the different natural resources and environments of both regions, a whole year before Vespucci's Mundus Novus (1504). Santaella concludes that Asia, Tarshish, Ophir, Cethim, and the other territories explored by the Portuguese are in the East, while Hispaniola and Antilla (a corruption of "Antindia," meaning "opposite to India") are in the West, a conclusion that reflected the growing conviction, in the years following Columbus' discoveries, that these lands represented a New World rather than an extension of the Old, even as Columbus himself persisted in his belief that he had found outliers of Marco Polo's Indies: "There is no evidence.that Columbus ever changed his cosmographical ideas, or realized the vast extent of the continent which he had discovered. Peter Martyr very early and Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella (the editor of the first Spanish edition of Marco Polo) in 1503, among others, questioned whether Columbus's Indies were the real Indies, but the Discoverer ignored them" (Morison). Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella y Córdoba (1444 1509) was a Christian humanist, theologian, lexicographer, and a prominent patron of higher education. In 1505, he founded the Colegio de Santa María de Jesús, which later became the University of Seville. His translation of Polo's work was motivated by the publication, in February 1502, of the first Portuguese version of the text, printed in Lisbon by Valentim Fernandes. Though Santaella borrows some information on Polo from Fernandes in the introduction, his translation was made independently, based on an Italian manuscript (a later version of the Venetian manuscript family VA2), now held in the Biblioteca Capitular of Seville. Scholars believe he probably acquired it in Sicily, while working as inspector for the Catholic kings between 1491 and 1496. Polo's narrative is followed by Santaella's translation of Nicolo Conti's account of his travels to Damascus, Persia, and India, taken from Poggio Bracciolini's redaction India Recognita (1492). "In his preface to Poggio, Santaella indicates that he is translating it to help confirm the veracity of Polo's account" - Lach. Early editions of Polo's travel account are famously rare in commerce, with only three complete copies of any pre-1530 edition at auction in the last half century. This translation was first published in 1503 and reissued in 1518; no copies of these two early editions are traced at auction and only a handful of examples are in institutions. The present copy belonged to the noted 19th-century Spanish bibliographer and collector Juan M. Sanchez and bears his bookplate on the front pastedown. It was offered by Maggs in 1927 and appeared in 1990 as item no. 34 in H.P. Kraus catalogue 185, Americana Vetustissima. CORDIER, SINICA II:920. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 529/14. KRAUS, AMERICANA VETUSTISSIMA 34 (this copy). PALAU 151208. MEDINA, BHA 79. HARRISSE ADDITIONS 89. Donald F. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, Vol. II, Book 2 (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1977), p.164. Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages A.D. 1492 1616 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1974), p.264 Small folio. Remboîtage of contemporary Spanish blind-stamped calf relaid over old wooden boards, raised spine bands. Boards tooled in blind with outer and inner roll-stamped frames featuring flower and leaf scrolls interspersed on rear board with crowned a.
Seller Inventory # 68839
Contact seller
Report this item
