THE HISTORY OF TRAVAYLE IN THE WEST AND EAST INDIES, AND OTHER COUNTREYS LYING EYTHER WAY, TOWARDES THE FRUITFULL AND RYCHE MOLUCCAES. AS MOSCOVIA, PERSIA, ARABIA, SYRIA, AEGYPTE, ETHIOPIA, GUINEA, CHINA IN CATHAYO, AND GIAPAN: WITH A DISCOURSE OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE. GATHERED IN PARTE, AND DONE INTO ENGLYSHE BY RICHARDE EDEN. NEWLY SET IN ORDER, AUGMENTED, AND FINISHED BY RICHARDE WILLES.

Eden, Richard, and Richard Willes: [Martyr, Peter]:

Published by London: Richarde Jugge, 1577.

About this Item

First edition thus, a precursor to Hakluyt and among the early English-language compilations of the most important early New World narratives. Eden first published his translations, drawn chiefly from Peter Martyr and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, in 1555. The present volume is not a second edition of that work but an entirely new one, edited by Richard Willes. Although it begins with material from those two great Spanish chroniclers, it incorporates substantial additions absent from the 1555 edition and omits material then judged obsolete (see Church for a full list of additions and deletions). Willes' principal editorial interest lay in the East, and the book has been described by E. G. R. Taylor as "the first comprehensive account of Asia to be published in English." The additions include an account of Frobisher's search for a north-east passage, the best 16th-century English report on China, and the first account of Japan in English. The volume also contains the first English edition of Ludovico di Varthema's celebrated travels in Arabia, Persia, India, and possibly the Spice Islands (1502 07). An Italian who learned Arabic, professed Islam, and travelled to Mecca, Varthema was among the first Europeans to report extensively on the East. Together, these additions amount to roughly a third of the text. Willes also includes one of the first accounts in English of Magellan's circumnavigation, a translation of Maximilian Transylvanis' narrative (leaves 430-447). This is one of the earliest printed descriptions of high-latitude sailing in the Southern Hemisphere. ESTC S122069. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 577/2. CHURCH 119. STREETER SALE 24. ARENTS 23. BORBA DE MORAES, p.33. HILL 533. STC 649. SABIN 1562. CORDIER, JAPONICA 71. FIELD 485. LUBORKSY & INGRAM, ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, 649. E.G.R. Taylor, Tudor Geography, 1485 1583 (London: Methuen & Co., 1930), p.182. Small quarto. Modern brown paneled morocco. Title leaf and last leaf of preliminaries backed, with minute losses to two words on title, paper repairs at head through to leaf 17, occasional words supplied in pen facsimile. Single worm-hole in upper inner corner of gutter throughout, not affecting text and mostly closed with tissue, dampstaining at head, mostly to first third, pale tideline at foot, rising towards the end, closely trimmed at head, occasionally shaving headlines. Overall, a good copy.

Seller Inventory # 68804

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE HISTORY OF TRAVAYLE IN THE WEST AND EAST INDIES, AND OTHER COUNTREYS LYING EYTHER WAY, TOWARDES THE FRUITFULL AND RYCHE MOLUCCAES. AS MOSCOVIA, PERSIA, ARABIA, SYRIA, AEGYPTE, ETHIOPIA, GUINEA, CHINA IN CATHAYO, AND GIAPAN: WITH A DISCOURSE OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE. GATHERED IN PARTE, AND DONE INTO ENGLYSHE BY RICHARDE EDEN. NEWLY SET IN ORDER, AUGMENTED, AND FINISHED BY RICHARDE WILLES.
• Publisher: London: Richarde Jugge, 1577.