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Ramusio’s important 16th century compilation of travels and voyages

Primo volume, & Terza editione Delle Navigationi et Viaggi... [&] Secondo Volume... [&] Terzo Volume Dell Navigationi et Viaggi...
Venice: Stamperia de Giunti, 1563, 1583 & 1556 (First Edition). Three volumes. folio (310 x 210mm), later uniform vellum. Vol 1: title+[vi}+394 numbered leaves, three double-page engraved maps. Vol 2: 16 leaves (including title, numbered to 18 but complete) + 20 unnumbered leaves (index)+256+90 numbered leaves, woodcut of rhubarb in text. Vol 3: 6 numbered leaves incl. title + 34+453 numbered leaves, 7 double-page maps, 1 single page, other woodcuts in text.
Stock #:  24633

£32,500.00

1 in stock

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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.

Condition:

Ink collector's stamp of title and endpapers. some foxing throughout. Vol 1: hole in title with old patch, leaves 8 & 9 partially detached, the three maps with damage near centre fold. Vol 2: leaves 16 & 17 partially detached. Vol 3: some paper damage from damp t bottom of first six numbered leaves; old ink marginalia in text and on woodcut of Temistitan; numbers of the double-page maps affected by binder's trimming.

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