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100 pp. Second edition; contemporary, speckled, two-tone brown leather; earlier spine, with cords, gilt trim; red lettering piece with gilt on spine; marble endpapers; eight preliminary sheets, title in red and black; prologue and licenses recto of the author's portrait. Binding tight; boards clean; the interior and text of this copy is in extremely fine condition, possibly, with the leaves having been washed. Minor wear to head and tail spine; corners with very minor bumps; else very fine; see additional images provided.The 1st edition of 1563 is a notoriously rare book; only five or six copies have survived. This edition quite rare as well; according to Innocencio I, 146, "almost all copies were lost, at the house of a bookdealer, during the Lisbon earthquake." "This volume is a chronological epitome of all discoveries and travels worthy of note, ancient and modern, undertaken up to the year 1555. Galvao had gone out to India in 1527, and had had a long and distinguished career as a governor of the Moluccas, even being offered the native throne of the island of Ternate.In his surprising knowledge of the Spanish discoveries in America, and even in the exploits of the French and English, Galvao showed great resourcefulness in assembling material and a real instinct for going to the right sources. His book is therefore wonderfully complete and very accurate. "Penrose, Travel and discovery in the renaissance, pp. 349. Borba states, "The author is too well known to require explanation." The Church Catalogue of Americana, pp. 758, states, "In this work is given a valuable chronological list of all the discoveries, ancient and modern, made down to the year 1555. The writer, who may be styled the founder of historical geography, spent the early part of his life in the East Indies, where he distinguished himself in an expedition which reduced the Moluccas to Portuguese rule. He includes his own experineces in the latter part of this work, which was first published in Portuguese at Lisbon in 1563, a few years after the author's death. The original edition was so rare even in Hakluyt's time that he says he could never get sight of a copy. Hakluyt, in his Epistle Dedicatorie, says: "The worke though small in bulke containeth so much rare and profitable matter, as I know not where to seeke the like, witin so narrow and streite a compasse." This second edition, states Innocencio 1/146, "has been equally rare for many years, since almost all the copies were lost in the house of a bookdealer during the Lisbon earthquake [1755]." Size: Lge. 4to. 0.0. Seller Inventory # 3524
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