The first volume only of the second Spanish edition of an important collection of Spanish documents on exploration. Sabin reports the complicated bibliography of this four volume work with individual volumes issued between 1727 and 1730 with volumes re-dated through this period. As is to be expected here the ‘Historia …’ follows the ‘Descripcion de las Indias Ocidentales …’ which introduces the work. Here we find before the ‘Descripcion’ unpaginated introductory text of 68 pages.

Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (1559‐1625) was born in the region of Segovia into a noble family. He became the official Spanish historian to King Philip II, III, and IV of Spain and as such had remarkable access to the archives. Indeed, he was responsible for recording the Americas as early as 1596. In 1601 he published the ‘Description de las Indias Occidentales’, one of the most comprehensive histories of the America’s yet published. Many of Herrera’s sources have been lost to us over time which makes his work even more valuable. Provenance: Juan and Peggy Rada Collection. Borba de Moraes (1958) I p. 337; Sabin (1868-1936) 31541 & 31546.