Las Casas, Bartolomé de: [De Bry, Theodor, engraver]:

$12,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

NARRATIO REGIONUM INDICARUM PER HISPANOS QUOSDAM DEVASTATARUM VERISSIMA: PER EPISCOPUM BARTHOLOMAEUM CASAUM, NATIONE HISPANUM HISPANICE CONSCRIPTA, & HISPALI HISPANICE, POST ALIBIR LATINE ... A handsomely bound copy of the second Latin edition of Las Casas's most enduring work, featuring elaborate and graphic engravings by the great Theodor De Bry. Las Casas first went to America in 1502, spending the next forty-five years positioned in Mexico and the Caribbean. He witnessed firsthand the appalling destruction of the native population at the hands of the Spanish, and dedicated his life to ending the encomienda system (which enslaved indigenous Americans to their conquerors) and its concomitant abuses. Despite becoming intensely unpopular with the leading Spaniards of the New World, he was made Bishop of Chiapas for a brief time before returning to Spain in 1547.Las Casas's harsh critiques of the Spanish colonizers found an enthusiastic audience throughout Protestant Europe after his return; his Brevissima Relacion de la Destruycion de las Indias was first printed in Seville in 1552, and editions swiftly followed in French, English, Dutch, German, and Latin. This profusion of later translations and editions transmuted Las Casas' work from a humanitarian plea into an important political weapon, propagating the "Black Legend" of Spanish misdeeds in the New World across the continent. This edition follows the first Latin edition of 1598, also the first illustrated edition. The le

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.