Sale 2455 - Printed & Manuscript Americana, September 28, 2017

302 c   (EARLY EXPLORATION.) Philoponus, Honorius [Caspar Plautius.] Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio, Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis. [6], 101, [3] pages. Engraved title page, 19 plates. Folio, early stamped white pigskin over boards, lacking clasps, minor wear;most plates cropped, plate facing page 52 with a 4-inch piece in facsimile, several early paper repairs; early catalogue number painted on backstrip, early owners’ inscriptions on title page. [Linz,Austria], 1621 [5,000/7,500] First edition, second issue with additional “Ad lectorum” leaf and owl plate in preliminaries, and additional “In primis” and errata leaves at end, though lacking the additional 1622 Columbus plate which Sabin states is sometimes found with this issue.Tells the story of the Benedictine monks who came to the New World with Columbus, and the miracles they performed. It is intended partly as a Catholic response to the popular “Great Voyages” of de Bry, a Protestant. American Indians are discussed at length and depicted in many of the plates, and an Indian melody is transcribed on pages 35-36.The plates include a Spanish admiral with an inset map of the Atlantic (facing page 6); a mass being celebrated on the back of a whale (12); Indians practicing cannibalism (32); a feast prepared for conquistadors (36); priests being martyred while dismantling a heathen shrine (46); natural history plates showing pineapples and potatoes (52); a group of Indians riding a massive sea creature (60, illustrated), and more.The author is presumed to be a Benedictine abbot named Caspar Plautius who wrote the book under a pseudonym, and then dedicated the book to himself with a grandiose flourish on the first page. European Americana 621/100; Palau 224762; Sabin 63367. bound with — [Mathias Chefneux.] Ecclesiae Catholicae a Christo ad nos Usque. [24], 405, [21] pages. Leodii: William Henry Streel, 1666.