ACOSTA, José de (1540--1600)
[Historia natural y moral de las Indias. French. 1598]
Histoire naturelle et moralle des Indes, tant Orientalles qu'Occidentalles. Où il est traicté des choses remarquables du ciel, des elemens, metaux, plantes & animaux qui sont propres de ces païs. Ensemble des moeurs, ceremonies loix, gouuernements & guerres des mesmes Indiens. Composée en castillan par Ioseph Acosta, & traduite en françois par Robert Regnault Cauxois. ...
A Paris (Place), chez Marc Orry,, 1598.
[viii], 375, [17] ff.; 16.4 cm. (8º)

Acosta was a Jesuit theologian and missionary to the New World who lived and travelled widely in western South America between 1569 and 1585. The Historia natural y moral de las Indias is notable as a firsthand account of the region at this time, and also as the earliest attempt to situate direct observations of indigenous South American culture in the context of contemporary scientific thought, including speculations about the Asian origin of Amerindian peoples. This is the first edition of the French translation. The Spanish original of 1590 was also translated into English in 1604. Folio 371 is misnumbered '271'.

Copy Notes Purchased from Thomas Boone for 3s. 6d. on 5 July 1815. (Spiers Box). Inscribed in ink on the title-page in a small, neat hand Richard Bentley. With a second inscription in a different hand at the foot of the title-page reading Immoulien ministre a Folleyme [?]. Occasional MS. marginalia in French and other markings, underlinings, etc.

Binding C18th calf, gilt-ruled spine, red morocco spine-label.

Reference Number 296

Additional Names Thomas Boone; Bentley, Richard (1662--1742). A dissertation upon the epistles of Phalaris, Themistocles, Socrates, Euripides and others, and the Fables of Aesop; Regnault, Robert