VIAGE DEL MVNDO.

Ordoñez de Cevallos, Pedro

Published by Por Luis Sanchez., Madrid, 1614

Title-leaf, [9],290,[4] leaves. Woodcut coat of arms on titlepage and portrait of the author, with historiated initials and decorations throughout. Small quarto. Bound to style in full calf, spine gilt with raised bands, leather label. Contemporary ownership inscription on titlepage, occasional contemporary manuscript annotations scattered throughout. Light tanning, occasional light dampstaining. Very good. The first edition of Pedro Ordoñez de Cevallos' description of his travels around the world and in the Spanish colonies in South America, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It is one of the earliest published personal narratives of a circumnavigation, and the first to recount a circumnavigation beginning in the Americas. "Pedro Ordoñez de Cevallos was born at Jaen in the middle of the sixteenth century. At an early age he travelled to Chile, the Antilles and Mexico in Valverde's fleet. Later he visited the Philippines from Acapulco and various East Indian Islands. In this account of his travels are many interesting details regarding the productions, costumes, customs and manners, from a soldier's point of view" - Herschel Jones. Ordoñez de Cevallos was born about 1557, and travelled extensively as a soldier of fortune from the 1570s in the eastern Mediterranean, to Jerusalem, Crete, and northern Africa. In the 1580s he went to the New World, visiting Bermuda en route. The narrative is one of the earliest publications to include material about Bermuda, containing two chapters about the island. Bermuda was first noted by Oviedo in his HISTORIA GENERAL. of 1535, but there was no permanent colony until the English settlement in 1612. Much of Ordoñez de Cevallos' career was spent in the Spanish colonies of South America. He settled in Quito, Ecuador in 1590 and travelled to other parts of the continent. Around 1600 he travelled with the Manila Galleon to the Philippines, then on to Macao, Canton, other places on the Chinese coast, and to Nagasaki in Japan. After this he served as a soldier in wars in Cambodia, and eventually went on to India and then back to Spain. Later he travelled again to the New World, returning to Ecuador and thus completing his around-the-world journey. By this time he had been ordained as a priest. He died about 1635. This work is of considerable rarity. A second edition was issued in 1691. Extracts were often translated and reprinted in various collections, such as those of De Bry, Barlaeus, and in Purchas' PILGRIMS. Extracts were also included in the 1622 Latin printing of Herrera's NOVUS ORBIS. Because of the rarity of the first edition it is better known from these sources than the original text. An important exploration narrative. The only two copies to appear at auction in the past fifty years have been imperfect. MAGGS BIBLIOTHECA AMERICANA 4128. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 614/82. STREIT I:345. SABIN 57524 ("Rare"). PALAU 203651. MEDINA, BHA II:609. JONES I:71. SALVA II:3801. Ticknor, HISTORY OF SPANISH LITERATURE III, p.183. BRUNET IV, p.210. Seller Inventory # WRCAM52579

Bibliographic Details

Title: VIAGE DEL MVNDO.
Publisher: Por Luis Sanchez., Madrid
Publication Date: 1614