Description
A complete set of the three volumes of Ramusio's 'Raccolta di Navigationi et Viaggi' from different editions, but uniformly bound. The 'Raccolta', a collection of travel accounts, was the first such compilation of both historical and recent narratives of discovery and was based on the last reports received by the Venetian state.
The first volume (first published in 1550, this volume the third edition), containing the travels of the Portuguese navigators along Africa and to the Indian Ocean, and is illustrated with the famous 'up-side down' maps of Africa, south Asia and the Far East.
The third volume was completed in 1556, before the second, and recounts the histories of the Spanish and French in America, as well as the 1563 voyage of Cesare Fedrici to India, Sri Lanka and Sumatra. The maps are Cusco, Nuova Francia, Brazil, Africa, Sumatra, Hochelaga and the Americas, and were printed from the rare first woodblocks, which were soon after destroyed by fire in 1557. A second set of the woodblock were cut for the 1565 edition, which had been attacked by woodworm by the 1606 edition.
The second volume comes from the first printing. It begins with Marco Polo and continues with other descriptions of the Central Asia, Tartary and the East Indies.