Beschreibung:

BRY, Theodor de (1528-1598). Wunderbarliche, doch Warhafftige Erklärung, von der Gelegenheit und Sitten der Wilden in Virginia welche newlich von den Engelländern so im Jahr 1585 . Frankfurt: Johann Wechel, 1590.
BRY, Theodor de (1528-1598). Wunderbarliche, doch Warhafftige Erklärung, von der Gelegenheit und Sitten der Wilden in Virginia welche newlich von den Engelländern so im Jahr 1585 . Frankfurt: Johann Wechel, 1590. 2° (331 x 244mm). Collation: a 4 , b 6 , c 4 , d 6 , e 2 ( e 1 + \kc\K 2 [map of Viriginia]), A 6 , B 6 (B4 + \kc\K 2 ), C 6 (C3 + \kc\K 2 ), D 6 , E 4 , [ 2 E 4 ], F 6 , complete with blank F6. German title and imprint on slips mounted on engraved title. Adam and Eve plate signed 'Theodore de Brij fe' not 'se.' WITH THE SCARCE MAP 'AMERICAE PARS NUNC VIRGINIA,' 23 numbered half- or full-page engravings above or facing German letterpress descriptions (all but the first numbered), 5 plates of the Picts, ALL COLOURED BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND; hand-coloured engraved arms on dedication leaf, woodcut tail-pieces. (Very minor marginal ink stains to verso of a4, light marginal dampstain affecting gatherings b, c and F.) Contemporary flexible vellum, covers tooled in gilt with thin twisted-rope border with small fleur-de-lys cornerpieces and central ornate oval medallion, dated '1590' on spine, remains of green silk ties (tooling rubbed leaving only traces of gilt, extremities lightly rubbed, very small chip to spine, lower cover lightly stained). Provenance : Johan Wilhelm Freiherr zur Königsegg und Aulendorf (near contemporary ink ownership inscription to title dated 1619) -- Helmut Domizlaff (1902-1983; very small discreet 20th-century blindstamp of initials in a circle to title at lower gutter). FIRST EDITION IN GERMAN OF THE FIRST PART OF THEODOR DE BRY'S 'GREAT VOYAGES.' The map of Virginia, present here in IN THE EXTREMELY RARE FIRST STATE with the village to the right of the native woman and child engraved 'Ehesepiooc', is 'ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CARTOGRAPHICAL MILESTONES IN COLONIAL NORTH AMERICAN HISTORY' (Burden). White had accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh on his 1585 expedition to found the first British colony in America and created his celebrated series of drawings and this map on that voyage. Illustrating Thomas Hariot's text of the expedition, White's was the most accurate map drawn in the sixteenth century of any part of that continent. It became the prototype of the area until long after James Moxon's map in 1671' (Burden). It was the first map to delineate the Chesapeake Bay and contains the first printed use of the name 'Chesapiooc Sinus.' De Bry had originally intended to use Jacques Le Moyne's drawings of the French expedition to the Southeast for the first part in his series, but Raleigh convinced him to devote the first book to Virginia instead, in an effort to encourage colonization. The White/De Bry map had an enormous influence on the mapping of both Virginia and Carolina, Cumming calling it 'one of the most important type-maps in Carolina cartography.' THE GERMAN-LANGUAGE EDITION IS RARE. Burden 76; Church 176; Cumming Southeast in Early Maps 12; Sabin III p.49.