One of 25 Copies
A privately printed facsimile edition of a unique surviving example of a Dutch edition of Vespucius, in the library of John Carter Brown. This facsimile edition itself is extremely rare, having been issued in a limited edition of 25 copies. The Dutch translation, probably made from Vorsterman’s Latin edition, under the title Van der nieuwer werelt oft landtscap, was originally printed by Jan van Doesborch in 1506, 1507 or 1508.
The entry in Sabin for the original edition:
The text is divided into eleven chapters, each one except the last with a descriptive heading. The first, fifth and eleventh are without chapter numbers; Cap. vii and viii are misnumbered viii and vi, respectively. There are four engravings, two of them used twice, making six altogether. The first engraving (pages 1 and 12) is the pictorial triangle belonging to the eighth chapter, showing two naked South American Indians in one compartment on the perpendicular side, standing at right angles with three clothed Europeans in the other compartment on the horizontal side. The second engraving (page 2) illustrates the stormy voyage described in the second chapter by the picture of a man being thrown from a ship to a large fish with wide open mouth. The third engraving (pages 5 and 16) shows four naked Indians, male and female, to illustrate Chap. 4. The fourth engraving (page 8) represents a group of six Indians fighting with bows and arrows, illustrating Chap. 5. There are also figures of six stars (page 11) and three stars (page 13), each group lettered Canopus albus, to illustrate Chap. 7 (misnumbered viii). The heading of Chap. X would read in English, “How this navigator will undertake a fourth voyage yet with two ships built here in Holland, if God spares him.” The eleventh chapter states that the book was translated from Italian into Latin, and from Latin into Dutch.
The type is similar to old English Black Letter, and is described by Proctor as Doesborch’s no. 1, the size in which most of his books were printed, twenty lines measuring 97 mm. See Proctor’s Jan van Doesborgh, Printer at Antwerp, Bibliographical Society Monograph No. 2, London 1894, pages 9, 22, 43--44; Frederik Muller’s Catalogue of Books on America, Amsterdam 1872, pages 5--7, no. 24, with facsimile of the first page; John Carter Brown Catalogue, vol. 1, 1875 edition, pages 44--47, and 1919 edition, page 48.
Rarity
Although well represented within institutional confines (14 copies per OCLC), this book is extremely rare in the market. Not a single example in RBH in the last 50 years.
Provenance.
The present example is a presentation copy inscribed by Mrs. John Carter Brown to prominent French doctor Théophile de Valcourt, author of Cannes. Son Climat et ses Promenades (1878).