Relatione del reame di Congo et delle circonvicine contrade. Tratta dalli scritti et ragionamenti di Odoardo Lopez Portoghese [...]. Con disegni vari di geografia, di piante, d'habiti, d'animali, et alto [...].

4to: [8]-82-[1] pp.; 7 (of 10) pl. (2 maps and pl. numb. 2 missing; soiled, some marg. tears or wormtracks strengthened/repaired, marg. damp stains, marg. holes in pp. 53 and 55).

17th-c. three-quarter vellum, paper boards, flat spine (sl. rubbed).

First edition of a work "which up to the middle of the nineteenth century was one of the chief sources for authentic information concerning central Africa" (Cox). Pigafetta published this book recolting the information collected by the Portuguese explorer Duarte Lopes. The adventurer left for the Congo in 1578 and after some years, while he discovered the lakes Tanganyika and Victoria, was appointed ambassador to the Pope and to Philip II to tell them of Congo's need for missionaries, to show specimens of minerals and to offer the Portuguese the advantages of free trade. Lopes was shipwrecked on his return home on the coast of Venezuela and came back only a year later. The explorer came back to Congo in 1589 but nothing more was heard of him. Copy illustrated with 7 double-page plates depicting a species of palm tree, costumes and modes of transport. Title within an architectural border.
Ref. Gay 3077. - EDIT16 34509. - Adams P-1176. - Cox 1597. - STC Italian p. 392.
Prov. Contemp. ms. entry.