Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio, Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis

Account of Early Spanish Colonization in the New World Fantastic Engraved Plates of America and Native Americans "One of the impudentest books known" (Stevens) First edition, second issue (with the additional owl pl. Folio. Modern quarter vellum. [10], 101, [3] pages. Engraved allegorical title page (including portraits of "S. Brandanus" and "Buell. Catalonus" and an oval map vignette) and 19 plates (including the owl plate) and 1 full-page woodcut diagram. Occasional small marginal tears on some of the plates. Early sympathetic paper repairs to some leaves. Tiny losses to two of the plates (lower left of the "Arlmirante de navios" plate, with loss of the letter "A"; and small loss to lower left corner of plate no. 3). Otherwise generally quite nice. Account of Early Spanish Colonization in the New World Fantastic Engraved Plates of America and Native Americans "One of the impudentest books known" (Stevens) First edition, second issue (with the additional owl plate), of this unusual early illustrated account attributed to the Benedictine abbot Caspar Plautius (Kaspar Plautz) of Seitenstetten Abbey in Austria. The author issued the book under a pseudonym and then dedicated it to himself. This issue with the additional "Ad lectorum" leaf and owl plate in preliminaries, and additional leaves at end ("In primis" and errata). According to Sabin some copies have an extra plate of Columbus at the end, dated 1622, which is rarely seen and is not present here. This famous and curious account of the discovery of America by Columbus focuses on the earliest missionary activity of the Benedictines under Father Buil. The work is renowned for its series of fantastic, engraved plates, including an iconic depiction of a Spanish admiral (clearly intending to represent Columbus) with an inset circular map of the Atlantic and the West Indies, by Wolfgang Kilian (1581-1662). Other plates show a mass being celebrated by St. Brandan on the back of a large whale-like fish; Indians practicing cannibalism; a feast prepared for conquistadors; priests being martyred while dismantling a heathen shrine; natural history plates showing pineapples, potatoes and other New World plants; a group of Indians riding a massive sea creature, and more. Fray Bernardo Buil accompanied Columbus on his second voyage (1493-96). A cleric sent with special ecclesiastical authority, Buil quickly became one of the admiral s sharpest internal critics. At the struggling settlement of La Isabela, Buil clashed with Columbus over who should hold sway in the colony and condemned what he saw as Columbus s harsh methods and heavy-handed rule amid shortages, unrest, and fraught relations with Indigenous communities. The rupture ended with Buil abandoning Hispaniola for Spain in early 1494, where he carried complaints that helped sour court opinion against Columbus s colonial governance. Plautius s Nova typis transacta navigatio (1621) casts the Columbus-Buil rupture as a showdown between Buil s claimed spiritual jurisdiction (as papal vicar/legate) and Columbus s temporal rule in the fledgling colony. Plautius's book amplifies a clerical, pro-Buil narrative in which Buil appears as a principled counterweight to Columbus s authoritarianism. The work should be read skeptically, since its agenda-driven perspective mixes authentic details with marvels and confusions. This work can be seen as a Catholic response to the more influential "Great Voyages" volumes published by the Protestant De Bry. American Indians are discussed at length and depicted in many of the plates. An Indian melody is transcribed on pages 35-36. This is one of the impudentest books known. The author's real name was Caspar Plautus, a monk at Lintz in Austria. In the most fulsome style, under his assumed n.…