NARRATIO REGIONUM INDICARUM PER HISPANOS QUOSDAM DEVASTATARUM VERISSIMA: PER EPISCOPUM BARTHOLOMAEUM CASAUM, NATIONE HISPANUM HISPANICE CONSCRIPTA, & HISPALI HISPANICE, POST ALIBIR LATINE EXCUSA.

Las Casas, Bartolomé de: [De Bry, Theodor, engraver]:

Edité par Oppenheim: Sumtibus Johan-Theod. De Bry, Typis Hieronymi Galleri, 1614.

A propos de cet article

A handsomely bound copy of the second Latin edition of Las Casas's most enduring work, featuring elaborate and graphic engravings by the great Theodor De Bry. Las Casas first went to America in 1502, spending the next forty-five years positioned in Mexico and the Caribbean. He witnessed firsthand the appalling destruction of the native population at the hands of the Spanish, and dedicated his life to ending the encomienda system (which enslaved indigenous Americans to their conquerors) and its concomitant abuses. Despite becoming intensely unpopular with the leading Spaniards of the New World, he was made Bishop of Chiapas for a brief time before returning to Spain in 1547. Las Casas's harsh critiques of the Spanish colonizers found an enthusiastic audience throughout Protestant Europe after his return; his Brevissima Relacion de la Destruycion de las Indias was first printed in Seville in 1552, and editions swiftly followed in French, English, Dutch, German, and Latin. This profusion of later translations and editions transmuted Las Casas' work from a humanitarian plea into an important political weapon, propagating the "Black Legend" of Spanish misdeeds in the New World across the continent. This edition follows the first Latin edition of 1598, also the first illustrated edition. The legendary engraver Theodor De Bry has adorned his version with a suite of accomplished but truly horrific illustrations designed by Flemish painter Joos van Winghe, depicting all manner of Spanish atrocities. Conquistadors are pictured brutally dismembering, hanging, torturing, and otherwise mutilating indigenous men and women, enacting mass executions, setting fire to homes and villages (and their inhabitants), and even spit-roasting children to feed to the dogs. Regardless of the motives behind publication, Las Casas's works rank among the foremost source materials for the early history of European colonization in the Americas, and are of the greatest historical importance and value. "The impressions of the plates in this edition are scarcely inferior to those of the first, so highly esteemed for their beauty of execution. From this period, however, they exhibited strong proofs of the wear and dimming of use and age. The text, it will be seen, covers twenty-four pages more than in the subsequent edition of 1664" - Field. "The Brevissima relacion remains today almost unparalleled in the vigor of its composition and the nobility of its design" - Field. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 614/18. FIELD 870 (ref), 872. JCB(3) II:101. MEDINA (BHA) 604. SABIN 11284. STREIT I:343. Small quarto. Later full rust-red morocco, gilt-ruled, board edges gilt, spine gilt extra. Corners and extremities worn, a few very small wormholes to spine, boards a bit scuffed and stained. Foredge of engraved title restored, just touching the printed border, minor foxing and tanning, light offsetting from a few illustrations. Later bookplates on front pastedown. A very good, attractive copy.

N° de réf. du vendeur 69180

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: NARRATIO REGIONUM INDICARUM PER HISPANOS QUOSDAM DEVASTATARUM VERISSIMA: PER EPISCOPUM BARTHOLOMAEUM CASAUM, NATIONE HISPANUM HISPANICE CONSCRIPTA, & HISPALI HISPANICE, POST ALIBIR LATINE EXCUSA.
• Éditeur: Oppenheim: Sumtibus Johan-Theod. De Bry, Typis Hieronymi Galleri, 1614.