The Life and Voyages of Americus Vespucius : with Illustrations Concerning the Navigator, and the Discovery of the New World

New York: Baker & Scribner, 1846. First edition. Hardcover. very good -. Octavo. 431, (1)pp. Index. Plus a 26pp. publisher's catalog. Original blind stamped decorative brown ribbed cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Illustrated with a steel engraved frontispiece portrait with tissue guard and a folding woodcut genealogical table of the "Vespuci Family." Gift inscription on front free endpaper, dated 1847, from James Prentiss (a prominent Rahway, N.J. land speculator) to his grandson. Extremities of spine and top gutter of front hinge with small chips, and corners a bit worn. Title page with some offset browning from the frontispiece, a faint embossed library round stamp, and some remnants of old rubber stamps on the title page. Old library bookplate on front pastedown and library call letters in white ink at base of spine. Despite the condition reservations, this is a sound, internally clean, excellent reading copy.

Contents: pt. I. Biography [including Vespucci's letters of his four voyages] -- pt. II. Illustrations. [I] Eulogium of Americus Vespucius [by S. Canavai] II. A narrative addressed to Lorenzo di Pier-Francesco de' Medici; giving an account of the voyage and discoveries of Vasco de Gama beyond the Cape of Good Hope, the authorship of which has been attributed to Americus Vespucius. III. Letters of Paolo Toscanelli to Columbus. IV. Marco Polo and his travels. v. Fellow-voyagers of Americus. Alonzo de Ojeda and Juan de la Cosa [abridged mainly from Irving's Lives of the companions of Columbus] VI. Documents relating to Americus Vespucius: Presented in the collection of Navarréte. VII. Letter of M. Ranke to M. de Humboldt, respecting the correspondence of Americus with Soderini and De' Medici. VIII. The Vespucci family.