South America.- Conquest of Peru.- Cieza De León (Pedro de) Parte primera de la chronica del Peru. Que tracta la demarcacion de sus provincias: la descripcion dellas. Las fundaciones de las nuevas ciudades. Los ritos y costumbres de los indios, y otras cosas estrañas dignas de ser sabidas, first edition, collation: ?⁶ 2?⁴ a-q⁸ r^6, largely double-column, title with large woodcut royal arms within woodcut border, 42 woodcuts in the text (some repetitions), and woodcut initials, author's signature to r6 verso, the odd ink note to margin in an early hand, title upper and inner margins restored and repaired tear to foot, title and first 2 gathering with repair and restorations to fore-margins and upper corner, a few other small marginal repairs and 1 or 2 neat repairs to text, light foxing and marginal damp-staining towards end, the odd patch of light staining and some light soiling or browning, but a crisp copy generally, contemporary vellum with manuscript lettering to spine, remains of ink inscriptions to lower cover, endpapers renewed, folio (292 x 200mm.), Seville, Martín de Montesdoca, 1553.

⁂ The first edition of this excessively rare chronicle. We can trace only three copies offered either at auction or in dealer's catalogues, and no copy other than this since 1951.

"One of the most remarkable literary productions of the age of the Spanish Conquest in America. It is, in fact, the only book which exhibits the 'physical aspect of the country as it existed under the elaborate culture of the Incas'." - Sabin.

The author of this history was one of the greatest authorities on Peru, where he spent 16 years. He started the work at Popayan in 1541 and finished it in Lima in 1550; the full chronicle consisted of four volumes, of which only the first was published, and deals with the geography, history and ethnology of Peru.

Apart from the famous woodcut and description of the silver mines of Potosi, engraved after an original drawing made by the author, the woodcuts depict the everyday life of the conquistadors with the Indians, boats on Lake Titicaca, the building of a city, Quechua Indians dealing with the devil, a human sacrifice, a Spanish and an Indian in front of the city of Cuzco etc... It also contains the first extended description of the Peruvian guanaco, or llama, and of the pepper-tree, or mollé, and the commercial and medicinal uses of its fruits.

Literature: Sabin, 13044; Medina (BHA), 157; Escudero (Séville), 555; Streit, II, 644; JCB (3) I:175; Field, 314;

Johnson, The Book in the Americas, 32; Delgado-Gomez, Spanish Historical Writing about the New World, 26;

Alden, 553/20; Maggs, Bibliotheca Americana (1926), p. 59, n° 3967; Quoted by Salvá, n° 3293, but never seen by him.