Description

TITLE TRANSLATION: Wonderful, but sincere explanation, of the occasion and customs of the savages in Virginia….

RARE: First German edition of Theodore de Bry’s Part I (Virginia) of his Grand Voyages which covered the fledgling Americas, the book having numbered copper plates with text below, related to the Indians of North Carolina.

No complete German first edition of Part I of the Grand Voyages has appeared on the American market for at least two decades, except one other which sold immediately.

“This First Edition in German [of Part I] is so rare that Camus says he had never seen it” (Church, p.409 quoting Camus Memoire, p.17).

“Nothing is more rare than the first editions of these four parts [Parts I. -IV. in German], Bibliotheca Grenvilliana, I: 89.” (Church, p. 429). In another statement of its rarity,

“I refer Hariot’s Virginia Part I, Grands voyages, of which only three copies are known” (Crawford, Collations p.3)

No transactions for complete Part I are listed on the internet or Rare Book Hub. None on ABE Books, except this copy.

BACKGROUND: The story in this book takes place beginning in 1585 on Roanoke Island in what is now Dade County, North Carolina. Queen Elizabeth (the First) had granted Sir Walter Raleigh a charter to colonize the part of America north of the Spanish claim for Florida. This new land was named “Virginia” in honor of the virgin queen. Raleigh appointed Ralph Lane as governor. Thomas Hariot was the documentarian and John White the surveyor (and cartographer). De Bry’s book is based primarily on their work.

PUBLICATION DETAILS: The text and plates of the present 1590 first edition of the German Part I agree with Church 176.The publication date near the bottom of the title page is 1590 and the colophon reads Gedruckt zu Franckfort am Mayn bey Johann Wechel in verlegung Theodori de Bry. M D XC. The table of plates in Part I lists 23 plates. The map of Virginia is listed as Plate I but the map not numbered.  Most of the numbered plates are based on John White’s watercolors. There is an un-numbered full-page engraving of Adam and Eve, State 1 of 3, drawn by Jodocus van Winghe and engraved by Theodore de Bry. The text in   the book is by Thomas Hariot from his Briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia, first published in 1588. The final portion of de Bry’s book is devoted to scantily clad Picts of Great Britain with skin coloring and tattoos.

MAP OF VIRGINIA:  Americae Pars, Nunc Virginia dicta, primum ab Anglis inventa sumtibus Dn. Walteri Raleigh Equestris ordinis Viri Anno Dni. M.D LXXXV. The map of Virginia by John White is Burden 76, State 2 of 3.  State 2 has the letter “C” engraved over the erroneous letter “E”.   The text on the map is in Latin, as it is in all editions of Part I. It is impossible to attribute the map to a particular edition once the map is removed from the book.

MAP TRANSLATION: Part of America, now called Virginia, first discovered by the English, taken up by Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight, in 1585 A.D.

CONDITION: Complete with all pages and engravings. Recently conserved by a well-known firm in North Carolina. Rebound in full calf. Several pages had old paper repairs which were replaced with modern archival material. The double-page map had been backed on archival paper many years ago. Miner moisture staining to most leaves, primarily in the margins.  Scattered rust stains. Good condition.

PREVIEW: For a preview and analysis of Part I, see Vavra, below.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Burden, Philip D. The Mapping of America. Rickmansworth: Raleigh Publications,1996.

Crawford Library, Bibliotheca Lindesiana : Collations and Notes, no. 3: Grands et petits voyages of de Bry. Author: Crawford, James Ludovic Lindsay, Earl of. Published by B. Quaritch, 1884.

Church, Elihu Dwight. Catalogue of Books Relating to the discovery of North and South America.  New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1907.

Vavra, Luke A. Exploration and Colonization of the New World 1492-1619: An Analysis of the German Editions [of] Theodore de Bry’s Part I (Virginia) 1590 and Part IV (Caribbean) 1594 of the Grands Voyages. Self- published, 2023. [Available on this site. Free copy with purchase of this book.]