Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio. Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis

Early (ca. late 17th or early 18th c.) speckled calf, wear to spine ends with joints starting, but binding quite sound. Slight bowing to boards, paste paper endpapers with a touch of (paste related) worning to gutter), title page neatly trimmed and remounted, early signature to front blank, minor foxing, browning, scattered small stains, throughout, but generally clean and a very good copy overall. Early marginalia in a few spots. Title, (4), 1-101pp, (table). 18 plates. The very rarely seen first state of the first edition with no owl plate and without the extra preliminaries. Plautius, a Benedictine abbot from Austria, wrote this history of the Benedictine missions to the New World led by Bernardo Buil on Columbus' second voyage. Plautius took extreme umbrage at Debry's Protestant depiction of the early voyages and sought to replace his inaccuracies with some of his own. The first issue is considerably rarer in commerce (just a couple copies have appeared at auction over the last 50+ years) and it appears that only a small percentage of institutional copies are the first issue. The illustrations include depictions of cannibalism, indigenous produce, and the famous engraving of mass being given on the back of a giant fish near St. Brendan's island, a story that Plautius deemed credible. Palau VI 107; Sabin 63367 Size: Folio. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: 1-2 kilos. Category: Travel & Places; Americana. Inventory No: 049714.…