Author

MEDINA, Pedro de.

Title

L'Arte del navegar,
in laqual si contengo le regole, dechiarationi, secreti, & avisi, alla bona navegation necessarrii.

Published, Date

A Pincio, for G. B. Pedrezano, Venice,1554.

Description

First edition in Italian, first issue, small 4to., [xii], 137 ll., large nautical woodcut to title, full-page map, numerous woodcuts (mainly diagrams but 3 incorporating maps and 1 repeating the ships at sea woodcut from the title), light soiling to title, occasional old ink spots etc to margins. Contemporary vellum, painted arms to covers, marbled edges, an attractive copy.

Note

A fresh copy, attractively bound, of the first practical treatise on navigation, and the first to give reliable information on the navigation of American waters, as Medina, who is said to have been one of Cortes' captains, based his information on the first-hand experiences of pilots and masters of the ships using the Indies trade route. First published in 1545, it was the translation of this work into other languages, like the present one, the first Italian edition, which enabled the rest of Europe to challenge Spanish hegemony at sea. "The map may be taken as embodying the results of Spanish discovery in 1540, as reported to him by the pilots ... It shows the mouth of the Mississipi and the lands around the river and gulf of the St. Lawrence ... The River Saguenay is here indicated, a remarkable feature in so early a map"(Church).

References

European Americana 554/45; Burden 21; Cf. Sabin 47346; Mortimer Italy 300; Adams M 1025; Church 98; BdM, II, 549-550.

Stock Number

81535