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History of a Voyage Made in the Land of Brazil

Lot 4
16.10.2020 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 5 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 411411
Lot 4 | History of a Voyage Made in the Land of Brazil
Estimate value
$ 5 000 – 8 000
LÉRY, Jean de (1534-1611). Histoire d'un voyage fait en la terre du Bresil, dite Amerique contenant la navigation. Geneva: heirs of Eustache Vignon, 1600.

An early edition of an important French eyewitness account of America. Léry was part of group of Calvinist colonists who came to France Antarctique (now Rio de Janeiro) just as French power was waning in the region in favor of the Portuguese. Seeking toleration, the group instead found a hostile environment and were banished from the island outpost. Léry and some of his companions were taken in by the Tupinambá, and lived amongst them for several months. This book records his observations of his rescuers’ lives and culture, accompanied by illustrations made iconic by their later adaptation by Theodor de Bry, as well as by some of the earliest examples of Brazilian music in print.

His supposedly detached manner of describing the Tupinambá inspired Claude Lévi-Strauss to refer to this book as the “breviary of the anthropologist.” While Léry disputes parts of the earlier account of Catholic traveler André Thevet, he reports the same tale of the locals' cannibalism—a detail some scholars now believe may be false, based on stereotyped European ideas of anthropophagy. Ironically, upon Léry’s return to France he endured the brutal Siege of Sancerre, which famously drove the besieged to cannibalism. The publication history of this book is complicated, with new material added (and sometimes expurgated) in subsequent editions. This edition, despite the title page’s witness, is actually the sixth edition and not the fourth. Sabin 40152.

Octavo (161 x 97mm). Woodcut illustrations, including folding plate depicting the Tupinambá battle; woodcut music; ornaments and initials (toning and stains; a few closed tears affecting text repaired/strengthened, neat repair to fold of large woodcut). Early limp vellum, title in ink on spine (some discoloration). Provenance: old monogram stamp on title.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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01.10.2020 – 16.10.2020
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