Mexico

In Venezia [Venice]: Nella stamperia Gatti a spese di Leonardo e Giammaria Fratelli Bassaglia, MDCCLXXXIII [1783]. Original Wraps. Second Venice Edition of Antonio Pillori’s translation of Robertson’s standard work, on the discovery of America and the conquest of Mexico and Peru. Demy 8vo (202 x 136mm): xxiv,240pp, with frontispiece portrait of Columbus and large folding map of Gulf of Mexico showing Florida, Cuba, Jamaica, and farther Caribbean islands; [2],5-328pp, with frontispiece portrait of Bartolomé de las Casas and folding map of South America; [2],3-359 [p. 181 misnumbered “281”; p. 304, “204”],[1]pp, with frontispiece portrait of Cortés and folding map of Mexico; [4],295,[1]pp, with frontispiece portrait of Pizarro and large folding map of Middle America. Original paper-case bindings with yapped edges, manuscript titles and volume numbers to spines, text block sewn on tawed tongs (vol. iv with modern replacements). Worming to upper cover, portrait, title page, and map margins of vol. iv now expertly restored by a paper conservationist. A remarkably fresh, wide-margined set, in original paper-case bindings, complete in four volumes (eight books) as issued, with all four folding maps colored in outline by a contemporary hand (as the John Carter Brown Library copy). Borba de Moraes, p. 740-41 (first edition). Sabin 71997, noting the Venice editions of 1778 and 1802 only). Fine. Originally published, in two volumes, in 1777 by Strahan and Cadell in London and Balfour in Edinburgh “to a very positive reception” (ODNB); first Venice edition published in 1778. “Its success,” according to the ODNB, “was even more marked on the continent, where it was considered Robertson’s masterpiece . . . With its dramatic sweep of narrative, combined with a provocative confrontation of two very different stages of civilization [Spanish and Native American] and a prose that was more flexible and evocative than that of his earlier books, the History of America is often regarded as Robertson’s most interesting, original, and even Romantic work. However, it also shows the Eurocentric limits of his stadial thinking, because it presents an unsympathetic account of Native Americans and glosses over Spanish atrocities.” Borba de Moraes credits Roberston with writing the “first history of the discovery and Spanish conquest of America based on ample bibliographical information and documents in the Simancas archives. . . . The bibliography at the end of the second volume is remarkable for the time.” Franklin D. Roosevelt owned the first Venice edition. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). less