Lot 410: [PERU]. L'histoire de la terre nevve du Perù en l'Inde Occidentale, que est la principale mine d'or du monde. Translated from Italian into French. Paris: Pierre Gaultier for Jehan Barbé and Vincent Sertenas, 1545.

[PERU]. L'histoire de la terre nevve du Perù en l'Inde Occidentale, que est la principale mine d'or du monde. Translated from Italian into French. Paris: Pierre Gaultier for Jehan Barbé and Vincent Sertenas, 1545. 8 o (166 x 102 mm). Collation : A-O 4. 56 leaves, including final blank. (Some pale browning.) Blue morocco, spines gilt, edges gilt, red morocco doublures and silk liners, by Lortic. Provenance : collation note signed with initials by Lucien Scheler. FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF THE CONQUEST OF PERU, "evidently composed by one of Pizarro's companions" (Harrisse). The translation is said to be by Jacques Gohory, and is based on the anonymous Libro ultimo del summario delle Indie occidentali , found in the 1534 Summario de la generale historia de l'Indie occidentali , itself a translation from La conquista del Peru of that year. Sabin and others attribute this work to Oviedo y Valdes, based on a note found at the foot of B2, but Alden & Landis states that this attribution of authorship is incorrect. "The work of Oviedo, who resided more than twenty years in America, is the fountain head whence most succeeding writers have drawn their accounts of the early occurrences in the New World" (Rich). Las Casas remarks: "Oviedo should have written at the head of his history: 'This book was written by a conqueror, robber and murderer of the Indians, whole populations of whom he consigned to the mines, where they perished." A large folded etched map of Peru and Columbia, signed "Conte d'Alsineys" and "A.S.," is found in a few copies. It is not strictly called for and most copies are without it or contain a facsimile of it. The binder Lortic supplied facsimiles of the map in the Bibliothéque Nationale copy, which are inserted in the Streeter and New York Public Libary copies. The book is of great rarity on the market. Both Sabin and Harrisse only call for 53 leaves. Alden & Landis 545/56; Brunet III:188; Harrisse 264; Sabin 57994.