Vespucci, Amerigo:

$425,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

MUNDUS NOVUS. From the collection of R. David Parsons. A primary account of the discovery of the New World, indeed the first to describe it as such, Mundus Novus is the first printed account of Brazil, and Vespucci's first published work about his American voyages. A rare and important Americanum by the man after whom the Americas would be named, this epistolary work comprises the "first printed document which exists about Brazil" (Borba). The letter to Vespucci's patron Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici describes his voyage along the coast of Brazil, carried out in the service of King Emmanuel of Portugal between May 1501 and September 1502. This voyage under the Portuguese flag is of fundamental importance in the history of geographic discovery, convincing first Vespucci and then those who read his letter that the newly discovered lands were not part of Asia but a New World. In this sense, Vespucci was the first to proclaim the true significance of the Discovery.During this voyage Vespucci became the first European to see the Río de la Plata, and sailed along the coast of Patagonia, possibly reaching as far as 50 degrees south. Spending almost a month ashore, Vespucci met indigenous peoples, whom he described as naked cannibals wearing colorful ornaments in their perforated ears, noses, and lips. He also described houses, hammocks, customs, and eating habits, and detailed animals and plants, some of which he compared to those in the Old World, and others that were wholly n

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