Printed and Manuscript Americana

Frankfurt: Ioannis Wecheli (for) Theodori de Bry, 1590 and (1608). Mixed edition in Latin*. From the library of bibliophile Amor L. Hollingsworth, and with his armorial book-plate on front paste-down. Folio. Illustrated with an engraved title-page (with the privilege statement engraved), dedication to Maximilian I with his large engraved arms, double-page map of Virginia by Theodor de Bry after John White (Burden's State 2), 28 numbered engravings (17 half-page with letterpress text, the others full-page or larger), woodcut head- and tail-piece ornaments and initials. Lacking blank leaf D6. Three-quarter brown morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, stamped in blind and in gilt, spine lightly faded, rubbing to extremities; all edges trimmed; matching marbled endpapers; old catalogue descriptions (for different editions) mounted on front blank; bottom edge of engraved title-page sometime renewed, repaired closed tear in lower fore-edge of same, scattered soiling to same, old notation at top of same; three words crossed out in contemporary ink on leaf d7; scattered light to moderate foxing to text and plates; scattered dampstaining in gutters and along bottom edges; a4, d1, d6-8, A-B8, C2, plate XIX, D2-D4 darkened and foxed; folding map of Virginia laid down on linen. Alden & Landis 590/31; Burden 76 (State 2); Church 140-142; Ludovic, Earl of Crawford, "Bibliotheca Lindesiana: Grands et Petits Voyages of de Bry", pp. 105-109; Sabin 8784

Part one, in Latin, of Theodor de Bry's famed collection of Great Voyages, a foundational text on the exploration of the New World recounting the abortive colony of Roanoke (in present day North Carolina), the first attempted British colonization in America. Featuring de Bry's seminal engravings of Native American life after watercolors by John White, as well as White's map of Virginia, "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)

Thomas Hariot's text was the first description of Virginia and North Carolina, and was first published in English in 1588. Hariot, along with artist John White, accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh's 1585 expedition to Roanoke. Hariot served as translator, having learned the Carolina Algonquin language the year before from two chiefs brought to England by Raleigh. In 1587, White returned to Virginia and became governor, where he remained until forced to return to England in order to replenish the colony's dwindling supplies. His return was delayed by war with Spain until 1590, by which point the colony had vanished. White's watercolors of Native American life and customs greatly influenced European conceptions of the New World, here finely engraved by De Bry.

*Text: All Church’s first edition, first issue points, except for signatures a4 (p. 7: second issue headpiece, but initial “H” occupies five lines as in his first issue), d1 (p. 29: second edition, first issue), and d7 (second edition, first issue). The same text all Crawford’s first issue points (or second, indicating no noted change), with the same above exceptions (his second edition).

Plates: Map of Virginia, Burden State 2; All Virginia plates are Church, Crawford, and Sabin’s second editions, except Plates XVI, XVIII-XX (Church's first edition, first issue; Crawford's first edition first or second issue; Sabin's original edition); all "Pict" plates Church, Crawford, and Sabin first editions.