[Americana]. ACOSTA (José de); REGNAULD (Robert). Histoire n - Lot 1

[Americana]. ACOSTA (José de); REGNAULD (Robert). Histoire naturelle et morale des Indes, tant orientales qu'occidentales, où il traicté des choses remarquables du ciel, des élemens, métaux, plantes et animaux qui sont propres de ce pays... A Paris, chez Adrian Tiffaine, 1616. Fort in-8, [8] f. (including title), 375 f., [16] f. (table), period parchment with laces (missing), 3-nerved spine, handwritten title and date (freckling and soiling to binding, hinges split, quires out of order, interior defects including dampening to upper right corner to f. 68, title faded with repairs to verso, worm work to lower margin f. 231-250, repaired on qq. pages). One of the most interesting accounts of South America, written by the Jesuit missionary José de Acosta, evangelizer of Peru. It provides a detailed account of the state of South America at the time, and constitutes the first history of the Indians of Peru and Mexico. The work was first published in Latin in Salamanca in 1589 under the title De Natura Novi Orbis Libri duo. It was translated into Spanish in 1591 and into French in 1598. The original French edition was printed in Paris by Marc Orry, and editions by the same printer appeared in 1600 and 1606. This copy is the fourth and last French edition, revised and corrected. In 1617 and 1621, reprints of this edition appeared with the date changed, as indicated by Sabin. Provenance: Abbé P. Person (stamp on title); unidentified black stamp. (Cordier Bibliotheca Japonica 121-2; Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana 10-14; Sabin, I, 125)