[Americana]. BYRON, John. GÓMEZ ORTEGA, C., trans. - Lot 274

[Americana]. BYRON, John. GÓMEZ ORTEGA, C., trans. Viage del comandante Byron al rededor del mundo, hecho ultimamente de orden del almirantazgo de Inglaterra en el qual se da noticia de varios paises del las costumbres de sus habitantes... Segunda edición. En Madrid, en la Imprenta Real de la Gazeta, 1769. Small in-4, (9) ff. (frontispiece, title, prologue), 176 pp. 1 map, (6) ff. including title, 55 pp. Contemporary ivory vellum, smooth spine, handwritten title (soiling to binding, small tear to head cap, wetness to half of frontispiece and upper margin of pp. 43-55 (2nd part), small cracks to map at folds, one touching map restored). Second edition of this work recounting the circumnavigation of the Englishman John Byron (1723-1786), governor of Newfoundland and Labrador. Enlarged with a section entitled Resumen Historico de primer viage hecho al rededor del mundo emprendido por Hernando de Magallanes..., featuring a historical summary of the first voyage around the world initially undertaken by Portuguese explorer Magellan under Spanish auspices. After Magellan's death in the Philippines, the voyage was completed by the Spanish captain Juan Sebastián Elcano, from Getaria in Guipuscoa (Spanish Basque country), who brought the survivors back to Spain, thus completing the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1522. Illustrated with a copper-engraved frontispiece in black by Cruz, showing an English navigator presenting giant natives with a piece of cookie, and a copper-engraved fold-out nautical chart enhanced with colored borders, illustrating the Strait of Magellan. Provenance: old signature "Pereira" repeated.