Historische Reisbeschryving van Geheel Zuid-America
[‘s Gravenhage]: Jacobus Huysman, 1771 (vo. 1), 1773 (vol. 2).
Two volumes, complete with half-titles and all 27 separate plates (17 folding). First Dutch edition, following the Spanish editio princeps (Relación histórica del viage a la América meridional..., Madrid, Antonio Marin, 1748), the German and French (Leipzig and Amsterdam, Arkstée & Merkus, 1751 and 1752) and the English (London, L. Davis and C. Reymers, 1758, translated by John Adams). Demy quarto, 11-1/4 x 9 in. (28.5 x 22.8 cm) overall, the pages 10-7/8 x 8-3/4 in. (27.7 x 22.2 cm). Contemporary quarter brown calf over olive green paper-covered boards, spines smooth in six compartments with gilt rules and lettering, red morocco title-pieces in the second compartments and volume number lozenges in the fourth, top edges rough trimmed and stained green, others uncut. Printed on fine laid paper with numerous engraved headpieces, section breaks and tailpieces. Collates (vol. I) [1 l. ], 1 l. (half-title), 1 l. (frontispiece engraving recto), 1 l. (title in red and black with engraved vignette), 2 ll. (dedication with engraved vignette; publisher’s statement), pp. [i]-ii (editor’s preface), [iii]-xi (list of subscribers), [xii] (privilege), [xiii]-xviii (Ulloa’s foreword), xix-xxiv (contents), 1 l. (fly-title), pp. [3]-428, [1 l. ], plus 12 additional ll. inserted plates printed one side only (eight folding); (vol. II) [1 l. ], 1 l. (half-title), 1 l. (title in red and black with engraved vignette), pp. [iii]-viii (list of subscribers), [iii]-iv (contents), 1 l. (fly-title), pp. [3]-406, 1 l. (directions for bookbinder), [1 l. ], plus 14 ll. inserted plates printed one side only (nine folding, and including, facing p. 171, an engraved Dutch transcription of the declaration of Kings Philip and Louis XV dated November 1746). The free endleaves are watermarked with a bend surmounted by fleur-de-lys, similar to Heawood (1950) nos. 69, 76, 115, all associated with examples dated in the 18th century, the last to 1760-70. Moderate overall wear to covers and spines, corners of covers and extremities of spines worn, chipped and bumped, front spine of vol. 2 separating (but holding), gutters of endleaves vol. 1 separating (but hinges still tight), lower corner clipped on pl. V, largest map (pl. XXIV) with 9 mm clean closed gutter tear, light graphite markings on some leaves, infrequent generally negligible stains scattered through text blocks; internally overall bright, clean and crisp, the plates, newly engraved for this edition, overall fine and incisive. Aguilar Piñal 5931 (under “Juan y Santacilia,” vol. IV (1986), pp. 762-6), Palau y Dulcet 125480 (under “Juan,” vol. 7 (1954), p. 221); Sabin 36804 (under “Juan,” vol. IX (1961), p. 357; see also vol. 26 (1962), pp. 72-4 under “Ulloa”).
This quarto re-issue in Dutch translation on fine laid paper with newly engraved plates derives from the French translation by de Mauvillon in the Arkstée & Merkus 1752 quarto edition. The French edition may be considered of greater scope than the original Spanish octavo, hurried into print on inferior Spanish paper with rushed engravings executed elsewhere, in that the French issue was a grand quarto production (albeit 4 cm less tall than the Dutch) to encompass the whole of what was, after all, a French scientific expedition at its core, the Geodesic Mission of l’Académie des Sciences led by Louis Godin, Pierre Bouguer and Charles Marie de La Condamine, charged with determining the length of a degree of meridian at the equator (and thus setting the basis for the length of a standard meter). As Ecuador and Peru were then Spanish dominions and the mission would have implications for the dividing line (the “Tordesillas meridian”) between the Spanish and Portugese spheres in South America under the 1494 Tratado de Tordesillas, the Spanish King asserted sponsorship of the project and commissioned the youthful Juan and Ulloa, members of the Guardas Marinas and thoroughly grounded in scientific studies, naval lieutenants to oversee the expedition in his name. While giving full credit to Juan’s scientific contributions (separately published in Spain) and continuing to respect Juan’s naval seniority (purely by age) in the order and font of the names on the title pages, the Dutch edition limits itself to the vastly more encyclopedic Relación histórica written by Ulloa alone, praised by its distinguished pre-publication censors the Marqués de la Regalía as demonstrating still the appetite and talent of Spaniards for great undertakings, and Andrés Marcos Burriel as “one of the best and most useful books that has been published in our tongue, ... destined to fulfill every expectation of the European public, to the greater glory of the nation, of his Majesty, of the ministry, and of its authors....” (Whitaker, op. cit., p. 169.)
Reference:
Whitaker, Arthur P., “Antonio de Ulloa,” The Hispanic American
Historical Review, vol. 15, no. 2 (May, 1935), pp. 155-194 (Duke University
Press).
Provenance:
José María Rodríguez (his Bibliotheca Chizigonana 1938
ex-libris labels and accession numbers on front pastedowns; his typed description
laid in loose);
Parke-Bernet Rodríguez sale, March 20, 1957, lot 182 (this copy);
Maury A. Bromsen (1919-2005), Boston antiquarian bookseller and honorary
curator and bibliographer of Latin Americana at the John Carter Brown Library,
Brown University (his typed cataloguing card laid in, referencing the Rodríguez
sale).
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Price: $2,500
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