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Admiranda narratio fida tamen, de commodis et incolarum ritibus Virginiae

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$ 252 000
Auction dateClassic
17.01.2024 11:00UTC -04:00
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CHRISTIE'S
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ID 1119184
Lot 91 | Admiranda narratio fida tamen, de commodis et incolarum ritibus Virginiae
Admiranda narratio fida tamen, de commodis et incolarum ritibus Virginiae

Theodor de Bry and Thomas Hariot, 1590

[BRY, Theodor de (1528-1598). The Great Voyages, Part I, in Latin]. HARIOT, Thomas (1560-1621). Admiranda narratio fida tamen, de commodis et incolarum ritibus Virginiae. Frankfurt: Johannes Wechel for Theodor de Bry, 1590.



De Bry’s Virginia with fine contemporary hand-coloring. First Latin edition of Part One of the Great Voyages; including the seminal map of Virginia “the most important and accurate depictions of North Americans published in the century after Columbus” (Creating America).



The map, engraved after John White, is "one of the most significant cartographical milestones in colonial North American history, [and] the most accurate map drawn in the sixteenth century of any part of that continent" (Burden). White and the scientist and surveyor Thomas Hariot had both accompanied Sir Richard Grenville's original Virginia expedition in 1585. White became governor of the second colony there. Forced to return to England for supplies, White was delayed by the war with Spain: when he finally returned to Virginia in 1590, the colony had vanished. The extraordinary engravings, shared by all four original editions (French, Latin, English and German), were based on White's famous series of watercolor paintings, now in the British Museum. “De Bry also published five plates purporting to be ‘true pictures’ of the Picts, ancient inhabitants of England, to show that Britain had ‘in times past’ been occupied by men ‘as savvage as those of Virginia’ … De Bry’s engravings [of Native Americans] introduced a generation of Europeans to the people of America, and in his comparison of Virginians to Picts foreshadowed the development of modern anthropology. Artists and engravers cribbed freely from his illustrations throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, often using them inappropriately to represent Native Americans from different regions and widely divergent cultures” (Creating America).



The engravings in particular that show Native Virginian clothing and body decoration find their fullest expression in this hand-colored format. Copies of any of the volumes of the de Bry Voyages with fine contemporary coloring are extremely rare. The title page is first issue, with the printed overslip privilege statement, as is the other text and the majority of the engravings. Plates 4, 7, 9,11,12 and 15 are in Crawford's second issue. Alden and Landis 590⁄31; Burden 76; Church 140; Crawford, Collations and Notes No 3 Grands et Petits Voyages of de Bry, pp. 105-109; Creating America 81.



Folio (315 x 237 mm). Engraved title-page, privilege statement on pasted-in slip, dedication to Maximilian I of Bavaria with his large engraved arms, double-page map of Virginia by Theodor de Bry after John White, 28 numbered engravings, ENGRAVED TITLE AND ENGRAVINGS FINELY COLORED BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND, of which 17 are half-page with letterpress text, the remainder are full-page or larger, nos. 2-23 by G. Veen or T. de Bry after John White, the last 5 by and after T. de Bry; no. 1 showing Adam and Eve (by T. de Bry after T. de Winghe), no. 2 a birds-eye view of the area around Roanoke island showing the arrival of the English, nos. 3-23 depicting scenes of Native Virginian life, and nos. 24-28 showing the ancient Picts. Woodcut head- and tail-piece ornaments and initials, most lightly hand-colored. Blank leaf D6 present. (Right edge of title-leaf restored including loss to lower outer section of the architectural frame, scattered small repaired fold breaks or edge tears occasionally touching images, some offsetting or showthrough of coloring, 2 or 3 text leaves browned, occasional marginal soiling, engravings 13, 18, 20 and 22 slightly cropped, 18 and 20 with minor short tears along guards, engraving 13 with a small chip to lower left corner, a pea-sized loss to sky at head of gutter and descriptive text also shaved, slight dampstain to upper gutter margins of a few leaves, printing flaw to plate section title affecting a few words in bottom paragraph.) 17th-century German speckled sheep over pasteboard, spine tooled in blind (restorations to head and tail of spine, a corner of back cover and a few small spots of leather worn or gnawed away). Provenance: Bernard Albach of St. Ahaus, Westphalia (contemporary ownership inscription with mottos); June 1628[?] ownership inscription; Nordkirchen (bookplate) – Christie’s New York, 10 December 1999, lot 115.

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