Apr 07, 2011 - Sale 2242
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Sale 2242 - Lot 65

Price Realized: $ 52,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
FIRST BOOK ON AMERICA PRINTED IN THE MUSLIM WORLD (LÓPEZ DE GOMARA, FRANCISCO; et al.) Tarih-i Hind-i Garbi [Description of the India of the West]. Ottoman Turkish text printed in Arabic characters. 13 wood- or metalcut illustrations; double-page folding engraved diagram of the solar system; double-page folding plate with table of equinoctial times and diagram of climatic zones; 2 folding double-page engraved world maps, one oval, the other double-hemispheric, both depicting California as an island. [3], 91 leaves. 4to, 204x156 mm, later Islamic-style morocco with envelope flap, gilt border on covers, spine faded; contents generally clean, with only a small stain at top of the maps and insignificant marginal repairs on verso of maps and solar system diagram. Ownership inscription of Albert Christian Ernst, Graf von Schönburg (1720-99), dated 5 March 1763 on first leaf; Latin synopsis of the contents in another hand on front flyleaf. Constantinople: Ibrahim Müteferrika, 1142 [i. e., 1730]
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first edition, limited to 500 copies, of an anonymous late 16th-century Turkish text comprising introductory chapters on cosmography and geography followed by an account of the discovery and exploration of the New World based on writings by Francisco López de Gomara, Pietro Martire d'Anghiera, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, and Augustín de Zarate. Apart from a picture of women growing on the mythical Wak Wak tree and a view of Potosí, the illustrations are fanciful interpretations of flora and fauna described in the text (e. g., mermen, tapirs, manatee, bird of paradise, bison, anteater, armadillo). This book was the fourth production of the first Muslim printing press, founded in Constantinople by Ibrahim Müteferrika, a Transylvanian-born convert to Islam, who began printing there in 1729. Alden 730/104; JCB/Literature of the Encounter 33.