Geraldini, Alexandri:

$15,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

ITINERARIUM AD REGIONES SUB AEQUINOCTIALI PLAGA CONSTITUTAS. OPUS ANTIQUITATES, RITUS, MORES, & RELIGIONES POPULORU[M], AETHIOPIE[A], AFRICAE, ATLANTICI OCEANI, INDICARUMQUE REGIONUM ... From the collection of R. David Parsons. A primary account of the earliest period of American discovery by the first bishop of St. Domingue, first published here more than a hundred years after it was written. Taken from a manuscript originally written in 1523–24 by this friend and companion of Columbus, this is one of the earliest written descriptions of the discovery and condition of the West Indies and provides a detailed description of native people, their habits, language and history.It was Geraldini's support of Columbus' argument for a spherical globe that enabled Columbus to be heard by the official council charged with evaluating his proposed voyage. Later, Geraldini, the tutor of Catherine of Aragon, went to Santo Domingo as the new see's first bishop, and the present text includes an account of his voyage and a description of the island. He writes that the native race has nearly been extinguished and that he is sending back to Europe two turkeys. His original manuscript was composed in 1523, thus his work precedes that of Oviedo and supplants the great explorer as the first European writer to mention the turkey."A very scarce and curious volume on the discoveries of the West Indies, written in 1524. Its writer was the intimate friend of Columbus, the one whose interest prevailed ov

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