Regimiento de Navegacion q[ue] mando haser el Rei Nuestro Señor por orden de su conseio real de las Indias a Andres Garcia de Cespedes su Cosmografo Maior

Book Description

Madrid: Juan de la Cuesta, 1606. 2 parts in one volume, folio. (11 1/8 x 7 1/2 inches). Letterpress title to part II. Engraved title to part I, 1 engraved folding map, numerous woodcut diagrams. (Appreciable old dampstaining to engraved title and the following leaves to B2, I4-L6, Z1 to the end). Early 20th-century vellum, covers panelled in gilt and blind with central lozenge-shaped arabesque ornament blocked in gilt, the flat spine with fillets in gilt and blind, and author, title and date of publication in gilt. First and only edition of this early 17th-century Spanish navigation manual, complete with an engraved world map. García de Cespedes served as Royal Cosmographer to Phillip III of Spain and held the chair of cosmography at the navigators' school in Seville. He took some of the information on navigation and mathematics from a source which is attributed to Pedro Nuñez, but the present work is otherwise substantially his own. It consists of two separate sections, each with its own titlepage, devoted to navigation and hydrography, and there are approximately 110 woodcut diagrams and illustrations of instruments - about 92 in the first part and 18 in the second. The final chapter is particularly interesting: it provides instructions for navigation in the Americas with sailing directions for the West Indies, Veracruz and Havana as well as instructions from Spain to Rio de la Plata, the Straits of Magellan, and the Pacific coast of South America. The text also includes documents relating to the dispute between Spain and Portugal regarding the line of demarcation between those countries' territories in the New World as initially created by Papal decree in 1493. The folding engraved world map consists of twelve gores and is "without title or decoration other than four compass roses. The lines of demarcation between the Spanish and Portuguese sectors of influence are shown. The gores are probably not intended to be more than illustrative although the west coast of South America has been noted as being surprisingly accurate for the time" (Shirley). European Americana 606/50; JCB (3) II:39; JCB Maritime Hand- list 68; Medina (BHA) 515; Palau 98619; Sabin 11718; cf. Shirley 256 (for the map); Wagner Northwest Coast 244.

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