D’ABBEVILLE, Claude (fl.1612-1614)

Lot 91
09.07.2025 10:30UTC +01:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 6 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1450509
Lot 91 | D’ABBEVILLE, Claude (fl.1612-1614)
Estimate value
£ 6 000 – 8 000
D’ABBEVILLE, Claude (fl.1612-1614)
Histoire de la mission des peres capucins en l’isle de Maragnan et terres circonvoisines ou est traicte des singularitez admirables & des meurs merveilleuses des Indiens habitants de ce pais avec les missives et advis qui ont este enuoyez de nouveau. Paris: François Huby, 1614.
First edition of the first written account of the 1612 French Capuchin mission to Maranhão, an island off the coast of Brazil, among whose aims was trade in tobacco and brazilwood. It is ‘the principal printed French source that exists about this tentative colonization of the north of Brazil [and] gives us valuable information concerning the religion and “astronomy” of the Tupis, not to be found in any other writings’ (Borba de Moraes). D’Abbeville relates the mission’s outward voyage, the arrival in Maranhão, the death of Father Ambroise, and the brothers’ activities on the island. He also adds detailed descriptions of the geography, flora and fauna, customs, laws and history of the native Tupi people. Six Tupi accompanied D’Abbeville and Arsène to France a few months after their arrival, and they are depicted here in European dress. Curious crowds flocked to see them, and it is possible that that interest caused the first edition to sell out quickly, necessitating a second edition that same year. Tragically, the Tupi succumbed to European diseases – the 60 year-old Carypira caught influenza and died, and two of his companions died soon after. Alden 614/25; Borba de Moraes p.5, Edition A; Duviols 29; Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana 1570; Rodrigues 1; Sabin 4; Streit II 2376.
Octavo (174 x 110mm). Engraved title and 7 engraved plates (lacking the final leaf containing the errata, lightly browned, occasional small stain, small marginal hole in last leaf, plates guarded-in). Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, spine lettered in ink (a few stains, some losses at spine, lacking ties). Provenance: old illegible inscriptions on title – Sir Henry Hope Edwardes, 10th Baronet, of Wootton Hall, Ashbourne, Derbyshire (1829-1900; bookplate) – old typed bibliographical description in Portuguese tipped in at end.
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