VESPUCCI, Amerigo.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Mundus novus. A cornerstone of discovery Americana, Mundus novus is the primary printed account announcing the existence of a "New World" and the first description of Brazil. It is Vespucci's earliest published narrative of his American voyages and the work that most forcefully advanced the idea that the lands reached by Iberian explorers were not Asia's eastern fringe but an entirely separate continent. For collectors, it is among the defining early works by the man whose name the Americas bear.None of the early editions bear imprints or dates, but this is generally counted as the fourth Latin edition, reprinted from the second issue of the second Venetian edition. Mundus novus spread rapidly through Europe, appearing at least a dozen times in Vespucci's lifetime in Latin and multiple times in German and French, as well as once each in Dutch and Czech. As Eames notes (in Sabin), this edition introduced textual changes that shaped all later Latin versions. It is the first edition without a separate title page, with "Mundus novus" set at the head of the opening leaf; the first to adopt the spelling "Vesputius"; and the one in which the printer shifted the triangle device from its usual position to the verso of the final leaf. Typographically, it is an elegant production, with few contractions and clean, balanced setting.Vespucci's letter, addressed to his patron Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, recounts his Portuguese-flag voyage of 1501-02 along the Brazilian littoral. It

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