Nov 7, 2023 10:00 EST
Rare Books, Autographs & Maps including the Esmond Bradley Martin Collection
188
The first Latin edition of the earliest collection of voyages, including Columbus and Vespucci
Estate / Collection: The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection
[COLUMBUS]
FRACANZANO DA MONTALBODDO, ANTONIO. Itinerarium Portugallensium e Lusitania in Indiam et inde in occidentem et demum ad aquilonem. Milan: J. A. Scinzenzeler, 1508. First Latin edition, the second issue of the map, as usually found (corrected to read "Sinus Arabicus," not "Persicus" for the Gulf). Diced 18th century armorial Russia, the covers with the arms of Charles Stuart, Baron de Rothesay (1779-1845), all edges gilt, marbled endpapers; housed in a modern clamshell case. 11 1/8 x 7 3/4 inches (28.5 x 20 cm); title with the woodcut map of Africa, [10], LXXVIII (i.e. LXXXVIII) leaves i.e. 98 ff., complete thus, collating A8 index aa2 text, B-N in 8s and 6s (detailed collation upon request). Rubricated throughout, initials and star charts well-colored in an early hand. Neatly rebacked retaining the original spine, minor rubbing to boards, three corners showing the board beneath at the extreme corner, internally a very fresh copy.
Fracanzano da Montalboddo's compilation is the first printed collection of voyages. It was first printed in Italian in Vicenza in 1507 as Paesi novamente retrovati. The present edition was translated into Latin by Archangelo Madrignano, a Milanese monk, and was printed in Milan the following year. This copy contains the rare two-leaf Index, which ”was apparently printed after the publication of the work, and inserted into the few available copies, so that today it is almost invariably missing” (Jones, Adventures in Americana).
Montalboddo's collection is significant for the early accounts of the exploration of the Americas, which include the first three voyages of Columbus, 1492-1500, the third voyage of Vespucci--to Brasil--1501-1502, and Pedro Alvares Cabral's discovery of the Brasilian, Guianaian and Venezuelan coasts in 1500-1501. African exploration (covered in some detail in this work, as indicated by the title-page map), includes Alvise da Cadamosto's explorations along the West African coast in 1456, which appears here for the first time. Vasco da Gama's voyages to Africa and India are also detailed in these pages. Additionally, the work contains important accounts of voyages in the Eastern Hemisphere. Printing and the Mind of Man states "the most important vehicle for the dissemination throughout Renaissance Europe of the news of the great discoveries both in the east and the west." The title page map is the earliest of any size to show the continent surrounded by the ocean.
Alden & Landis 508/4; Brunet III:474; Borba de Moraes I:580; Church 27; Fumagalli 985; Harrisse 58; Hattendorf "The Boundless Deep..." p.111; Sabin 50058 ("This book is of excessive rarity"); Streeter Americana Beginnings 3. See PMM 42 (1507 edition).
Sold for $239,400
Estimated at $200,000 - $250,000
Includes Buyer's Premium
Estate / Collection: The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection
[COLUMBUS]
FRACANZANO DA MONTALBODDO, ANTONIO. Itinerarium Portugallensium e Lusitania in Indiam et inde in occidentem et demum ad aquilonem. Milan: J. A. Scinzenzeler, 1508. First Latin edition, the second issue of the map, as usually found (corrected to read "Sinus Arabicus," not "Persicus" for the Gulf). Diced 18th century armorial Russia, the covers with the arms of Charles Stuart, Baron de Rothesay (1779-1845), all edges gilt, marbled endpapers; housed in a modern clamshell case. 11 1/8 x 7 3/4 inches (28.5 x 20 cm); title with the woodcut map of Africa, [10], LXXVIII (i.e. LXXXVIII) leaves i.e. 98 ff., complete thus, collating A8 index aa2 text, B-N in 8s and 6s (detailed collation upon request). Rubricated throughout, initials and star charts well-colored in an early hand. Neatly rebacked retaining the original spine, minor rubbing to boards, three corners showing the board beneath at the extreme corner, internally a very fresh copy.
Fracanzano da Montalboddo's compilation is the first printed collection of voyages. It was first printed in Italian in Vicenza in 1507 as Paesi novamente retrovati. The present edition was translated into Latin by Archangelo Madrignano, a Milanese monk, and was printed in Milan the following year. This copy contains the rare two-leaf Index, which ”was apparently printed after the publication of the work, and inserted into the few available copies, so that today it is almost invariably missing” (Jones, Adventures in Americana).
Montalboddo's collection is significant for the early accounts of the exploration of the Americas, which include the first three voyages of Columbus, 1492-1500, the third voyage of Vespucci--to Brasil--1501-1502, and Pedro Alvares Cabral's discovery of the Brasilian, Guianaian and Venezuelan coasts in 1500-1501. African exploration (covered in some detail in this work, as indicated by the title-page map), includes Alvise da Cadamosto's explorations along the West African coast in 1456, which appears here for the first time. Vasco da Gama's voyages to Africa and India are also detailed in these pages. Additionally, the work contains important accounts of voyages in the Eastern Hemisphere. Printing and the Mind of Man states "the most important vehicle for the dissemination throughout Renaissance Europe of the news of the great discoveries both in the east and the west." The title page map is the earliest of any size to show the continent surrounded by the ocean.
Alden & Landis 508/4; Brunet III:474; Borba de Moraes I:580; Church 27; Fumagalli 985; Harrisse 58; Hattendorf "The Boundless Deep..." p.111; Sabin 50058 ("This book is of excessive rarity"); Streeter Americana Beginnings 3. See PMM 42 (1507 edition).
Auction: Rare Books, Autographs & Maps including the Esmond Bradley Martin Collection, Nov 7, 2023
-
Successful Auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps Tops $1 Million!
-
November 7, 2023 Sale Featured the Esmond Bradley Martin Collection of Africana & Travel
-
Consignments Are Currently Being Accepted for Future Auctions
NEW YORK, NY -- Doyle's successful auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on November 7, 2023 topped $1 million amid competitive international bidding. Offerings in this popular sale spanned early illuminated manuscripts to modern literary first editions.
The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection of Africana and Travel comprised fascinating material that attracted bidders from around the world. Highlighting the collection was a copy of the first Latin edition of the earliest published collection of voyages, including those of Columbus and Vespucci: the 1508 Milan Fracanzo da Montalboddo, which achieved a strong $239,400. The collection also featured a rare uncut copy of Livio Sanuto's 1588 atlas of Africa that doubled its estimate at $25,200, as well as a group of 19th and early 20th century material relating to Zanzibar that attracted intense competition, sending the lots soaring over expectations. (Read more about Esmond Bradley Martin below.)
Property of other owners was highlighted by a first edition of Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking scientific work, On the Origin of Species, 1859, which realized $94,500. This copy bore provenance of Charles Darwin's great-grandson Quentin Keynes, to the naturalist Richard Bayard Dominick, thence by descent to the consignor.
Robert Browning's first edition copy of John Keats’ poem, Endymion, 1818, sold for $37,800, many times its $7,000-10,000 estimate. The poem begins with the well-known verse, "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever."
The selection of livres des artistes featured François-Louis Schmied's Daphne in a major Art Deco binding by Pierre Legrain, 1924, one of 140 copies. The book tripled its $8,000-12,000 estimate, selling for $32,760.
Manuscripts in the sale were highlighted by a medieval manuscript on paper, Calculus temporum Ecclesiasticus, which sailed past its estimate of $3,000-5,000 to achieve an exceptional $31,500. This fascinating calendrical manuscript in Latin, circa 1360, possibly English in origin, was once the property of antiquary and collector Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872).
100 years before the Revolution: from Plymouth Colony to the Salem Witch Trials - The Victor Gulotta Collection, offered a curated collection of 17th and 18th century manuscripts documenting life in colonial New England. Among the rarities were a 1691 document signed by two notorious Salem witch trials magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin that realized $5,670, a document from 1686/87 signed by Edmund Andros as Governor of the Dominion of New England that sold for $5,670, and a 1656 Boston court document relating to a divorce case that achieved $6,300, all three exceeding their estimates.
Esmond Bradley Martin
Esmond Bradley Martin (1941-2018) was educated as a geographer and philosopher. He and his wife Chryssee had an enduring fascination with Africa, and settled in Nairobi, Kenya, in the mid-1970s. He wrote extensively, oftentimes in conjunction with his wife, publishing works including Zanzibar. Tradition and Revolution, Hamish Hamilton, 1978; Cargoes of the east. The ports, trade, and culture of the Arabian Seas and western Indian Ocean, Elm Tree Press, 1978; and many other works on African history and conservation. In the late 1970s, he began extensive research into the illegal trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn, which included substantial stints incognito posing as a buyer of illicit wildlife products. For a while, he served as special envoy for rhino conservation for the United Nations. He continued this work until 2018 , when tragically he was stabbed to death in his Nairobi home
For about thirty years, beginning in the mid-1960s, Esmond Bradley Martin assiduously collected books and manuscripts on Africa and its history, acquiring a phenomenal collection of letters by many of the major English explorers of the nineteenth century, as well as numerous rarities from earlier centuries. He was buying at a time when troves of such material surfaced frequently at English auctions. Doyle was privileged to offer the first selection of his collection in the November 7 auction. A second and final portion will be offered early next year.
We Invite You to Auction!
Consignments are currently being accepted for future auctions. We invite you to contact us for a complimentary auction evaluation. Our Specialists are always available to discuss the sale of a single item or an entire collection.
For information, please contact Peter Costanzo at 212-427-4141, ext 248, or Edward Ripley-Duggan at ext. 234, or email Books@Doyle.com
