4to. 222x165 mm. Contemporary sewing binding with handwritten title on the spine and ancient signature. Frontispiece, pp. LXXVI, including Title page, 128, [2, with Errata]. Frontispiece engraved on copper by I. Sveicarte on drawing of I. Menabuoni, vignette on Titlepage, a large folded plate with genealogical tree, a woodcut at pagina 119, depicting the World sorrounded by a celestial globe.
Numerous small perspective and optical engravings applied to the inside covers, eight words censored in pen on page XXXIX.
First edition. The work contains the biography of the navigator from which the America takes name, followed by the reports of his four voyages, written by himself, as well as from his letters to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici, which describe his travels in America: includes also the account of the journey of Vasco de Gama written by Jerome Sernigi.
Sabin: “An elaborate panegyric of Vespucius, in which he is called the Discoverer of America.” Borba de Moraes: “This classic work is much sought after. It can be affirmed that the book's publication inflamed the literary controversy about Vespucci that impassioned the greatest 'Americanists' of ensuing decades. It is an indispensable work, a true landmark in Vespucian studies.”
Sabin 3149; Borba de Moraes, p 68; Alden - Landis 745-218; Palau 23255.