Angliara, Juan de:

$75,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

DIE SCHIFFUNG MITT DEM LANNDT DER GULDEN INSEL GEFUNDE[N] DURCH HERN JOHAN VO[N] ANGLIARA HAWPTMAN DES CRISTENLICHEN KUNIGS VO[N] HISPANIA. From the collection of R. David Parsons. The first and only German edition of a tract ostensibly describing the discovery of new lands in the New World. Of the author, wholly unknown to most bibliographers, Harrisse suggests that a comparison to Peter Martyr was intended given the similarity of his Anghiera to the stated author's "Angliara."The author describes himself as an Italian captain of a Spanish vessel departing for Calcutta. Following a storm, they reach an island on April 23, 1519, communicate with the inhabitants, visit a capital city full of gold, and eventually return to Spain. European Americana states that the island is possibly a description of Peru; if this were the case, it would be the earliest description of Peru in any form by several years. In fact, the text seems more closely related to the pamphlet by Juan Díaz, Littera Mandata dell Insula de Cuba de India, the first published account of Juan de Grijalva's expedition to the Yucatan, the first substantive contact between Europeans and native Americans of the mainland of North America. The Díaz account was first published in Italian and Latin in 1520. Angliara's fantastical narrative is perhaps another form of the extraordinary news of initial contact by Spanish explorers with the great civilizations of the New World.First published in Venice the same year, the Itali

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