COMENTARIUS DE REBUS IN INDIA APUD DIUM GESTIS ANNO SALUTIS NOSTRAE M.D.XLVI.

Published by Coimbra: Joao de Barreira and Hoao Alvares, 1548.

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Seller: William Reese Company, New York, NY, U.S.A.William Reese Company

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Item description from seller

From the collection of R. David Parsons. The extremely rare first edition of this account of Portuguese conquests in western India, focussing on the furious seven-month second siege of the stronghold at Diu in 1546. This is one of two contemporary celebrations of the Portuguese victory; the other was by Damião de Góis. It was commissioned from the humanist Diogo de Teive (ca. 1513-1565) by King João III. "To fulfill its objective of monopolizing the East Indian spice trade, Portugal had to wrest control of the Arabian Sea from Egyptian Muslims. In addition to establishing forts and equipping trading posts in India, the Portuguese began a military offensive against the Muslims by attacking and sinking an Egyptian fleet off the island of Diu, a possession of India's Muslim state of Gujarat, in 1509" - Kohn. The earlier siege of Diu in 1538 reflected its strategic importance: along with Damman and Goa it became part of what Kohn describes as "a triumvirate of fortified Portuguese trade centers dominating the eastern end of the Arabian Sea." The second siege of Diu (April 20 - November 10, 1546) was conducted by the forces of the Sultanate of Gujarat under Khadjar Safar, the Portuguese defenders being led by João de Mascarenhas. The siege was lifted after intervention from a fleet commanded by João de Castro. Included are laudatory epigrams by the humanist João da Costa and the Scottish writer and historian George Buchanan, who in 1547 accompanied his colleague André Gouvea to Coimbra, where the latter was appointed principal of the college. Joaquim Anselmo, in his Bibliografía das Obras Impressas em Portugal No Seculo XVI (1926), cites six copies: at the National Library in Lisbon, the Portuguese National Archives, the Biblioteca da Ajuda, Bibliotecas Municipais do Porto, Biblioteca Pública de Évora, and Coimbra University. OCLC adds three locations: British Library, University of Göttingen, and the Biblioteca Nacional de España. Besides this copy, sold at Sotheby's in 2000, the only other recorded example in commerce was in Maggs' 1929 catalogue, Bibliotheca Asiatica et Africana. ANSELMO 254. George Childs Kohn, Dictionary of Wars, rev. ed. (New York: Routledge, 1999), p.377. Small quarto. Contemporary limp vellum, Yapp edges. Ties lacking, light wear to vellum, faint ink inscription on front. Eighteenth-century shelfmarks on front pastedown, skillfully repaired worming to preliminary blank, titlepage, and following leaf (just touching the margin of the title page woodcut and a few letters on the following leaf), light tanning. A very good copy.…

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Bibliographic details

Title
COMENTARIUS DE REBUS IN INDIA APUD DIUM GESTIS ANNO SALUTIS NOSTRAE M.D.XLVI.
Author
Teive, Diogo de:
Publisher
Coimbra: Joao de Barreira and Hoao Alvares, 1548.
Edition
1st Edition

William Reese Company

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