[Rarebooks] fa: Alvarez de Colmenar: ANNALES D'ESPAGNE ET DE PORTUGUAL - 166 PLATES + Folding MAPS of HAITI & THE CARIBBEAN, &c. - 1741

[ArCh]

Auction ends Sunday, November 19. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/mrsk4pr2

Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Don Juan Alvarez de Colmenar, [Pierre Massuet, trans.]: Annales d'Espagne et de Portugal, contenant tout ce qui s'est passe de plus important dans ces deux Royaumes & dans les autres Parties de l'Europe, de meme que dans les Indes Orientales & Occidentales, depuis l'etablissement de ces deux Monarchies jusqu'a present. Amsterdam: Francois l'Honore & fils, 1741. First edition thus. Four volumes bound in two, large 4tos (29 cm), in full early/period decorated calf, gilt-lettered spine labels, marbled endpapers and page edges; [2], xii, 424 pp.; [4], 288 pp.; [4], 331, [1] pp.; [4], 340, [46] pp.; title-pages printed in red and black, with engraved vignettes; half-titles to vols. ii-iv; directions to the binder at the rear of vol. iv; with 3 folding maps and 166 engraved plates (mostly two to a page), including a folding view of Barcelona (complete). Brunet I, 205.

The first French, first quarto, and most desirable edition of this monumental history and cultural survey of - and contemporary travel guide to - Spain and Portugal. A smaller, 12mo, edition was issued the same year in eight volumes. The first volume contains three fine folding maps related to the Western Hemisphere: Cartes des Isles de l'Amerique (Central America and the Caribbean, Cuba, the West Indies, etc.); L'Isle Espagnole, sous le nom Indien d'Hayti (Haiti); and Carte de l'Isle Saint Domingue avec partie des Isles voisines (Santo Domingo and neighboring islands). In addition to a splendid folding view of Barcelona, the plates include maps, plans and views of Burgos, Madrid, Toledo, the Escurial, Seville, Segovia, Gibraltar, Granada, Lisbon, Belem, Coimbra, Sintra, etc., etc., plus depictions of contemporary modes of dress, bullfighting, and such tourist attractions as an Auto de Fe, complete with burning heretics.

Ex-library, but understatedly so, with small ink stamps to the versos of the plates, a penciled shelving number to the front free-endpaper of vol. I, bookplates to front paste-downs, etc. Bindings with rubbing and wear, especially to the corners, edges and spines; joints cracked but secure; one plate leaf neatly detached from the text block and one page-gathering loosening; the text leaves with browning and offsetting to various degrees, but the plates are quite clean and crisp, with just a few occasional small spots and traces of toning to the edges.