Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8): Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8): Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
Another _Mundus novus_ is supposed by Harrisse to have been printed
somewhere in the lower Rhineland, and to bear the mark of Wm.
Vorsterman, of Antwerp, on the last leaf, merely to give it currency
in the Netherlands. It has four leaves, and forty-four lines to
the full page. There are copies in the Lenox and Harvard College
libraries.[516] The _Serapeum_ for January, 1861, describes a _Mundus
novus_ as preserved in the Mercantile Library at Hamburg,—a plaquette
of four leaves, with forty-five lines to the page,—which seems to
differ from all others.[517] Later, in his _Additions_ (1872), Harrisse
described other issues of the _Novus mundus_ which do not seem to
be identical with those mentioned in his _Bibliotheca Americana
Vetustissima_. One of these—_Mūdus novus_, printed in a very small
gothic letter, four leaves—he found in the Biblioteca Cosatenense at
Rome.[518] The other has for the leading title, _Epistola Albericii: de
novo mundo_,—a plaquette of four leaves, forty-eight lines to the page,
with map and woodcut.[519]
This letter of Vespucius was again issued at Strasburg in 1505, with
the title _Be [De] ora antarctica_, as shown in the annexed fac-simile;
and joined with this text, in the little six-leaved tract, was a letter
of Philesius to Bruno, and some Latin verses by Philesius; and in this
form we have it probably for the last time in that language.[520] This
Philesius we shall encounter again later.
[Illustration]
It was this Latin rendering by Giocondo, the architect, as Harrisse
thinks,[521] upon which the Italian text of the _Paesi novamente_
was founded. Varnhagen in his _Amerigo Vespucci, son caractère_ (p.
13), prints side by side this Italian and the Latin text, marking
different readings in the latter. In this same year (1505) the first
German edition was issued at Nuremberg, though it is undated: _Von
der new gefundē Region die wol ein welt genennt mag werden durch den
cristenlichen Künig von Portugall wunnderbarlich erfunden_.[522] The
colophon shows that this German version was made from a copy of the
Latin text brought from Paris in May, 1505: _Ausz latein ist dist
missiue in Teütsch gezogē ausz dem exemplar das von Parisz kam ym maien
monet nach Christi geburt, Funfftzenhundert vnnd Fünffjar. Gedruckt yn
Nüremburg durch Wolffgang Hueber_. The full page of this edition has
thirty-seven lines.
[Illustration: TITLE OF THE DRESDEN COPY.
This follows the fac-simile given in Ruge’s _Geschichte des Zeitalters
der Entdeckungen_, p. 333, of an edition in the Royal Library at
Dresden.]
Another edition, issued the same year (1505), shows a slight change
in the title, _Von der neü gefunden Region so wol ein welt genempt
mag werden, durch den Christēlichen künig, von Portigal wunderbarlich
erfunden_. This is followed by the same cut of the King, and has a
similar colophon. Its full page contains thirty-three lines.[523]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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