Lot n° 322
Estimation :
6000 - 8000
EUR
BÉTHENCOURT (Jean de). Histoire de la première descouverte e - Lot 322
BÉTHENCOURT (Jean de). Histoire de la première descouverte et conqueste des Canaries, daite dès l'an 1402 par Messire Jean de Bethencourt, Chambellan du Roy Charles VI. Escrite du temps mesme par F. Pierre Bontier, Religieux de S. François, & Jean Le Verrier, prestre domestique dudit sieur de Bethencourt. Et mis en lumière par M. Galien de Béthencourt, Conseiller du Roy en sa Cour de Parlement de Rouen. Plus un traicté de la navigation et des voyages de descouverte & conquestes modernes, & principalement des François. Paris, Michel Soly, 1630.
2 parts of [10] ff, 208-[12] pp, [5] ff, 303 pp (Traicté de la Navigation et des voyages de descouverte & conqueste modernes [...] Paris, Jean de Heuqueville et Michel Soly, 1629), bound in one volume in-8 in Jansenist garnet morocco, ribbed spine, gilt title, gilt edges (Lanscelin).
Very rare first edition of this book of great interest for the history of French maritime expeditions. It features a fine portrait of J. de Béthencourt, engraved by Balthazar Moncornet. The second part, which begins with a special title dated 1629, is by Pierre Bergeron.
"Béthencourt (Jean, seigneur de), nicknamed the King of the Canaries, was born around the middle of the 14th century. Biographers disagree on the place of his birth. Some say he was born at St-Martin-le-Gaillard, near the town of Eu, others at Grainville-la-Teinturière, in the Pays de Caux. What is certain is that he was buried in the choir
choir of the latter commune's church, in 1425. Bethencourt's account of the conquest of the Canaries (1402-1406) is the earliest surviving record of the settlements made by Europeans overseas. Frère.
A very fine copy, with wide margins, from the G. Hanotaux library (cat. no. 56). The last preliminary leaf of the second part, which is blank, is missing. Ex-libris J.M. (Frère I, 101.)
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