Fernández de Enciso, Martín.

First edition, small folio (276 x 200mm.), woodcut illustration of an armillary sphere and woodcut borders on title-page, white-on-black woodcut initials, nineteenth-century smooth calf with central leafy blind stamp and double gilt fillet border, spine gilt in compartments, in tan morocco-backed folding box, without final blank leaf, title-leaf repaired at edges with some loss to woodcuts at top of title-page (replaced in facsimile), small inkstain on d8 verso, occasional light foxing

Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878), small embossed armorial stamp gilt; Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), with "MHC" (Middle Hill) in pencil on verso of front flyleaf; Frederick, 2nd Lord Hesketh, bookplate

Alden & Landis 519/4; Norton 924; Palau 88433; Sabin 22551

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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The first Spanish account of discoveries in the New World by Martín Fernández de Enciso (c.1470-c.1528), geographer and conquistador, the object of the book being to aid mariners and pilots in making discoveries as well as for the instruction of Charles V.

The work was first published in 1519 and reprinted in 1530 and 1546 (as here). "By 1508 [Enciso was] living in Hispaniola as a successful lawyer and trading partner of Alonso de Hojeda, to whom he provided one of the ships used in Hojeda's voyage in 1509. On 1 [September 15]10, Enciso sailed with two ships... to support the settlement of San Sebastian on the Gulf of Uraba (in Colombia), which has been temporarily established by Hojeda. By the time Enciso arrived (May 1510), Hojeda had sailed off in search of him, while Francisco Pizarro, who had been left in command, had abandoned the colony. When it became clear that Enciso had no control over the undisciplined colonists, Balboa assumed command of Enciso's men and moved the expedition to the west coast of the gulf, where the colony of Santa Maria de Antiqua de Darien was founded. There Balboa arrested Enciso and sent him back to Santo Domingo. Enciso returned to Spain and eventually avenged himself through the court" (Howgego, Encyclopaedia of Exploration).