Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - August - 2007 Issue
50 Fine Travel Books from Bernard J. Shapero Rare Books
The almost first map to call America "America."
Item 22 is the second English edition of a most important work concerning the New World: The Pleasant Historie of the Conquest of the West India, now called new Spaine. Atchieued by the most woorthie Prince Hernando Cortes...most delectable to reade. This history sure wasn't pleasant, nor delectable to read, for the Aztecs Cortes slaughtered. Author Francisco Lopez de Gomara was Cortes' chaplain, and had low standards as to what constituted "pleasant." If this is not an entirely objective view of Cortes' conquests, it is still one of the best available of the history of this period. Gomara had access to numerous of Cortes' documents, many since lost. This second English edition was published in 1596, 18 years after the first. £15,000 (US $30,260).
As the Aztec empire in Mexico fell, so did the Spanish. Item 48, Mexico...by H.G. Ward, was published a few years after revolution ended almost three centuries of Spanish rule. Ward was Britain's official representative in Mexico in the early days of independence. Offered is the second and expanded edition from 1829, which includes a map showing Texas, then still part of Mexico. Item 48. £1,850 (US $3,732).
The website of Bernard J. Shapero Rare Books is found at www.shapero.com. Their telephone number is +44 (0)20 7493 0876.
