De originibus americanis

[xx]+282 pages with title printed in red and black. Duodecimo (6" x 3 3/4") bound in full leather with blind stamped ruled edges. (Sabin 33014. TPL 6327. Field 717. JCB II 418. Leclerc 290. Rahir 2056. Graesse III 370. Winsor I 369-70) First edition.

One of the principal works in the celebrated literary dispute over the origins of the American aborigines. The controversy began in 1642, when Dutch jurist, Hugo Grotius, published his De Origine Gentium Americanorum, in which he postulated that all of North America, except for Yucatan, was inhabited by the descendants of pre-Columbian Scandinavian colonists, that the Peruvians were from China, and that the regions south of Peru were peopled by the Moluccans. His theory aroused an antagonist in Joannes de Laet, who counter-posed that the Scythian race furnished the predominant population of America. Horn, better known by his Latinized name Hornius, entered the debate at the suggestion of De Laet, whose view he supported, but he also held to later additions from the Phoenicians and Carthaginians on the Atlantic side, and from the Chinese on the Pacific. The work contains references to early travels and accounts of America, and discussion of the Huron and Iroquois tribes of Canada.

Condition:

Rebacked, signature clipped from front free end paper which is partially detached, early book plate to front pastedown, inked library stamp to final page, corners chipped, title with some old ink numbers else a good copy.