Ramusio, Giovanni Battista

Primo [Secondo- Terzo-] volume & Quarta editione. Delle navigationi et viaggi raccolto da M. Gio. Batt. Ramusio, & con molti vaghi discorsi, da lui in molti luoghi dichiarato, & illustrato. Nel quale si contengono. . .

THE LIENZ CARMELITE–HOFINGER–HAFT SET

 

Three volumes. Venice: the heirs of Lucantonio Giunta, 1588 (1587 colophon)–1583–1565. Fourth edition of vol. I, third edition of vol. II (earliest full edition), second edition of vol. III.

Folio mostly in 8s (12 11/16” x 8 7/8”, 323mm x 226mm).
Vol. I: a⁴ b-d⁸ e¹⁰ ₂a-u⁸ ₂x¹⁰ ₂y-bbb⁸ ₂ccc¹⁰(₂ccc10 blank) [$half signed; –a1; ₂p1 mis-signed “p ij”, ₂kk4 mis-signed “kk iij”]. 434 leaves, foll. [4] (title, blank, 2pp. dedication, 2pp. to the reader, 2pp. index of authors) 1 2-34 (68pp. index), ₂1-162 χ162 163-394, blank. [=foll. iv, xxxiv, 396] With 10 woodcut illustrations and 1 woodcut map integral with the text. Without the three double-page maps of Africa, India and the East Indies found in some examples.[1]
Vol. II: 1-2⁶ 3⁴ 4⁶ 5⁴, A-II⁸, ₂A-X⁴ ₂Y⁶ [$half signed; –1₁]. 372 leaves, foll. 1 2-5 [1] 9-18, [10] (20pp. index), 1 256, ₂1-90. [=foll. xvi, x, 256, 90] With a woodcut illustration.
Vol. III: binder’s blank, A⁶ B-D⁸ E¹⁰, a-yy⁸ zz¹⁰ aaa-eee⁸ fff⁴ ggg-hhh⁸ iii-kkk⁶ (kkk6 blank) [$half signed; –A1]. 482 leaves, foll. [6] (title, blank, 9pp. dedication, list of authors), 1-34, ₂1-453 455-456 (foliated including 7 hors-texte double-page woodcuts), [1] (2pp. blank). [=foll. vi, xxxiv, 442]. With 3 woodcut maps and 37 woodcut illustrations integral to the text; and 2 double-page woodcut views and 5 double-page woodcut maps (foliated continuously but produced separately).
With 48 woodcut illustrations and 3 woodcut maps integral to the text in toto; and 2 double-page woodcut views and 5 double-page woodcut maps (foliated continuously but hors-texte) in toto.

Bound in vellum (perhaps contemporary, but rebound and laid over new vellum). On the spines, paper labels with author, title, description of contents and date. All edges of the text-block glazed blue-green.

Recased (not, as previous cataloguers have claimed, a remboîtage, but the old covers on modern vellum), with some losses to the old vellum at the extremities and particularly at the spines. End-papers renewed. Some losses to the paper-label of the third volume (and little chips to the others), with the text generally rubbed and faded. Small passages of marginal damp-staining throughout, particularly in vol. I (with some associated spotting). Scattered passages of tanning, but altogether quite a fresh set. Graphite marginalia in Armenian and Latin to II foll. 61^r, 91^v, 92^r, 109^r and III.A6^r and foll. 410v and 456^r. “Carmeli Leontini” in ink manuscript flanking the printer’s device on the title-page of each volume. Violet ink-stamp (“CAR. HOFINGER, PRESB. ARCHD. SAL.”) of Karl Josef Hofinger erased from the title-page of each volume, but preserved at the verso of the second leaf of the map of Taprobana (III.434^v) and the second leaf of the Americas map (III.456^v).


Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485–1557) was a humanist who spent much of his life in service to the Venetian state. He was a member of the Accademia Aldina, and Aldus Manutius writes highly of his scholarship. He rose through the ranks of the Venetian republic, both as secretary to Doge Alvise Mocenigo and as secretary of the Senate and one of the secretaries of the Consiglio dei Dieci. While representing Venice at the court of Louis XII, he gained access to French accounts of the New World, which appealed to Venice as her land access to Asian trade was being threatened by the Ottomans. Ramusio, armed with these voyages, edited them into a single collection so that future explorers could access easily what had already gone out of print or had never been widely circulated.

The Navigationi et viaggi first appeared in 1550, its first volume dealing with Africa — including Leo Africanus’ Descrittione dell’ Africa, whose original manuscript was rediscovered in the 1930’s — India and Southeast Asia generally; the recounting, in effect, of the Portuguese contribution from the rounding of Africa in 1498 through their exploration of the Indian Ocean. The third volume — with maps by none other than Giacomo Gastaldi — came out next (1556), dealing with the New World or, as on the final map, the “parte del mondo ritrovata” or “re-discovered part of the world.” This volume benefitted tremendously from Ramusio’s connection to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by way of the explorer Sebastian Cabot.

A fire in 1559 stalled the second volume, burning the original manuscript and, it is thought, several of the wood-blocks. The publication history of the set is nuanced, but it is remarkable that the work was so much in demand that it went through a great many editions into the early XVIIc. By gathering voyages from Marco Polo through to the most up-to-date records of contemporary explorers, Ramusio created an indispensable tool for nations and companies looking to the limits of what was known for expansion and profit. The plans and maps, including the first detailed plan of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City) and the supremely elegant circular map of the Americas that closes the final volume, are joined by woodcuts of plants, animals and other curiosities to be found, but this is foremost a work of text, far more readable in vernacular Italian than in academic Latin.

Lienz in Austria, about 100 miles east-northeast from Venice, was home to a Carmelite (from 1785 to the present, Franciscan) friary from 1349. The Carmelites amassed a substantial library, which was largely dispersed at their displacement by the Franciscans, numbering over 4,500 volumes. The volume may have left ecclesiastical hands, but the next marking owner was Karl Josef Hofinger (1863–1945), a priest and professor (at the Gymnasium Borromäum) in Tirol. Jay Michael Haft (1935–2022), with his wife Clayre, was born in Brooklyn and rose to be one of the great corporate lawyers of the XXc. His substantial library was offered over the course of several sales by Sotheby’s in London and New York, the present set offered in London 12 December 2023 (lot 115).

Adams R 139 (vol. II) & R 140 (vol. III); Edit16 49426, 36412, 27293.

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[1] Sabin notes that they are “lacking in many others;” it may be the case that the blocks for those maps were destroyed in the 1557 fire that delayed the publication of the second volume, and that the appearance of these maps in third, fourth and later editions of the first volume is spurious.

Item #JLR0673

Price: $50,000