DE BRY, THEODOR. 1528-1598.
Der Ander Theyl / der Newlicherfundenen Landtschafft Americæ, Von dreyen Schiffahrten/ so die Frantzosen in Floridam (die gegen Niderganggelegen) gethan. Frankfurt: Theodor de Bry, 1591.
Folio (327 x 234 mm). a-e4 f6 (- blank f6); A-N4 O6 (- blank O6). Two engraved and letterpress titles, one to the text and a second to the plates, both as issued with the letterpress text on paper panels pasted onto elaborate engraved surrounds (the title page to the text with an additional small slip with the publishing details in German), engraved arms of Prince Willhelm, Pflastzgrave am Rhein, Duke of Upper and Lower Bavaria, on dedication leaf, 43 half-page engraved illustrations (42 after Le Moyne), finely hand colored and heightened with gilt by a contemporary hand, possibly "C.C." (inscription with initials to image VIII), each illustration with letterpress description beneath. Disbound. Custom oak box, lined with green baize, facsimile paper title label on upper cover within decorative red morocco surround. Lacking the double-page map and blanks f6 and O6, toned throughout, numerous repairs and chips, some small losses.
Provenance: C.C. (inscription "C.C. PI[NXIT]." on image VIII, ? original colorist); S.R.L.R. (initials on verso of D1).
THE FIRST DE BRY EDITION IN GERMAN OF "LE MOYNE'S FLORIDA": HERE WITH A COMPLETE SUITE OF THE PLATES WITH FULL CONTEMPORARY HAND-COLORING. This work is very rare with contemporary coloring and this example is exceptional in that the colorist/artist can be tentatively identified: image VIII is inscribed "C.C. PI[NXIT]." The quality of the coloring and the use of gilt heightening suggest that this copy was prepared for a very high-status owner, either as a commission or as a gift. The coloring shows a number of similarities with the copy in the library of the Service Historique de la Marine currently housed in the Chateau de Vincennes, France.
The text describes the earliest French settlements of what are now portions of the United States and are here combined by de Bry with engravings based on watercolors by Jacques le Moyne, a member of the 1564 French expedition, and arguably the first western artist to visit the New World. This work was the second in a series published by de Bry. The first, was Thomas Hariot's account of the English Roanoke settlement in Virginia, illustrated by John White. Together, these two offer the first accurate illustrated eyewitness accounts of Native Americans. Church 179; cf. Cumming & De Vorsey 14; Graesse 7:130; Sabin 8784; Schwartz & Ehrenberg pp 64-7.