1800. · London
by Díaz del Castillo, Bernal
London: Printed for J. Wright, 1800.. viii,514pp. plus engraved plan and errata leaf. Quarto. Antique half calf and marbled boards. Very good. First English edition of the classic account of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, written by one of Cortes' officers, here translated from the original Spanish by Maurice Keatinge. With a handsome frontispiece plan of the city and lake of Mexico.
Written in response to Lopez de Gomara's laudatory biography of Cortés, in which "El Marques" sometimes seems to have conquered the Aztec empire single-handedly, the HISTORIA VERDADERA... remained in manuscript for some fifty years until Alonso Remon, the Chronicler General of the Mercederian Order, edited the text for publication. It is the classic eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico, and will always be one of the primary sources for that extraordinary saga. SABIN 18884. PALAU 72373. FIELD 425. BRUNET II, 679 ESTC T145951. (Inventory #: WRCAM41909B)
Written in response to Lopez de Gomara's laudatory biography of Cortés, in which "El Marques" sometimes seems to have conquered the Aztec empire single-handedly, the HISTORIA VERDADERA... remained in manuscript for some fifty years until Alonso Remon, the Chronicler General of the Mercederian Order, edited the text for publication. It is the classic eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico, and will always be one of the primary sources for that extraordinary saga. SABIN 18884. PALAU 72373. FIELD 425. BRUNET II, 679 ESTC T145951. (Inventory #: WRCAM41909B)