In cui si tratta le meravigliose cose del mondo per lui vedute

A$100,000 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Limited edition

Venice : Mathio Pagan, 1555. Small octavo, seventeenth century Italian vellum, gilt-lettered red morocco title label to spine, marbled endpapers, bookseller s label of William Salloch in verso of rear free endpaper, 56 unnumbered leaves, edges stained red, printed in italic, woodcut to title leaf, a hint of foxing, but internally clean, the pages not washed, unrestored, a fine copy in early binding. A rare early edition of Marco Polo, published in his native tongue, in his native city. Unquestionably, the famous account of Marco Polo is the single most important travel narrative of the Middle Ages, one that shaped Western perceptions of Asia and the Islamic world for centuries. It might also be argued as Sabin has done that it provided a major impetus for the exploration of the New World: The travels of Marco Polo in the East claim a place in an American collection in consequence of the remarks of distinguished geographers that they were perused by Columbus, and that the revelations made by him of the wonders of Cathay and Zipanga stimulated the great navigator to accomplish through the sea, what the Venetian traveller had by land (Sabin). This is one of two issues or editions printed by Matteo Pagano, in this imprint the date is absent in the colophon: ‘In Venetia per Matthio Pagan, in Frezaria, al segno della Fede’. The text on the title page is also laid out a little differently to the dated edition. This is the fifth edition in the Italian vernacular, with the earlier edi

• Binding: Hardcover

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