CORTÉS, Hernan, & Pietro Martire d'Anghiera (Peter Martyr).

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Praeclara de nova maris oceani Hyspania narratio sacratissimo ac invictissimo Carolo romanorum imperatori semper Augusto, Hyspaniarum & cum regi anno dominii M.D.XX. transmissa; First Latin editions of Cortés's second and third letters, this copy complete with the important map of Tenochtitlan and the Gulf of Mexico, which is nearly always lacking. Besides including the first plan of an American city, it is the first map to name Florida and the first map to depict any portion of the Mississippi, here named Rio del Spiritisancto. Although the Latin editions of the two letters were issued in the same year by the same printer and are often found together, they are separate works, the third letter being the scarcer. With Peter Martyr's De rebus, et insulis noviter repertis standing in for Cortés's lost first letter, this combined volume offers the best available firsthand narrative of the Spanish conquest of New Spain.Cortés's second letter, dated 30 October 1520, provides a vivid account of the people he encountered en route to Tenochtitlan, painting a picture of an impressive empire centred around a great city. He relates his conflict with his rival Velazquez and describes the buildings, institutions, and court at Tenochtitlan. In it, Cortés refers to his first letter, supposedly composed at Vera Cruz on 10 July 1520, now lost, which would have described his voyage from Cuba across the Gulf of Mexico and first landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula. Including information from that f

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