A Fine Collection of American Literature and History

Dublin: Printed by S. Powell, 1727. In two volumes. 12mo. Translated from the Spanish by Thomas Townsend. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece, three folding plates, and two folding maps. Contemporary full paneled brown calf, stamped in blind and gilt; split in gutter between frontispiece and title-page in first volume; previous ownership signature in pencil on each title-page; top corner of pp. 97/98 torn and affecting some words. Sabin 86488

Antonio de Solis y Ribadeneyra (1610-1686) was a Spanish dramatist turned historian, and is considered one of the great writers of Spanish Baroque literature. This work, which first appeared in English in 1724, was extremely popular in both Europe and the New World. It remained the most important European source on Latin American history up through the nineteenth century.