ENCISO, Martín Fernández de.

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Suma de geographia que trata de todas las partidas & provincias del mundo: Rare first edition of the first practical guide to sailing in American waters, the first navigational manual printed in Spain, and the first book printed in Spanish relating to America. This historical account by a participant is essential for any collection on navigation to the New World.Martín Fernández de Enciso (c.1470-c.1528), geographer and conquistador, was a native of Seville who would have grown up acutely aware of the earliest voyages to the Indies. Although he may have travelled earlier, he is securely documented in Hispaniola by 1508, already established as a lawyer and merchant. In 1509 and 1510 he joined Alonso de Hojeda's expeditions along the north coast of South America and subsequently to Panama, the voyage during which Balboa first sighted the Pacific. Enciso remained deeply involved in the Spanish conquest of the region and served as aide to the first governor, a post he held in 1514. He returned to Spain sometime thereafter and published the Suma in 1519.Enciso was the first writer to recount the history and navigation of the New World drawing on broad, first-hand experience. Columbus and Vespucci had offered only brief narratives of their coastal voyages, while Peter Martyr's Decades (1516) compiled reports sent back to him in his capacity as a court official. Enciso's book, by contrast, drew on perhaps a decade of living and travelling in the Indies, enriched with extensive oral

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