RAMUSIO, Giovanni Battista

by Giovanni Battista Ramusio

£39,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

Remarkably crisp and clean copies of one of the most important collections of voyages and discoveries, beautifully illustrated. As here, most recorded sets are composed of different editions and those like this featuring the most complete editions of each of the individual volumes are rare. 1583 is the first complete (and augmented) edition of vol. 2, and 1606 and 1613 the only complete ones of vols. 1 and 3 (Brunet, IV, 1100-1101), adding for example the travels of Barents and Federici for the first time. Born in Treviso, Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1557) worked as secretary and envoy to Alvise Mocenigo, having access to the latest information on expeditions and travels of exploration reaching Venice from abroad. First published by Ludovico Giunta in three separate volumes between 1550 and 1565, Delle navigationi was a collection of the first-hand Portuguese, Spanish, Greek, Dutch (all translated in the Italian vernacular) and Italian accounts of voyages to Asia, Africa and America published up to that time, illustrated with bespoke maps the first work of its kind. The first volume is mainly devoted to countries which have been known for 300 years , e.g., from Africa (and the kingdom of Prester John) to the Eastern Indies. The second features the accounts of Marco Polo on the Tartars and China (with the first mention of tea in Europe), as well as notices on Persia, Armenia and Paolo Giovio s ground-breaking work on Muscovy. The third is devoted to the world unknown to th

• Binding: Hardcover

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