ACOSTA, José de.

The naturall and morall historie of the East and West Indies. Intreating of the remarkeable things of heaven, of the elements, mettalls, plants and beasts which are proper to that country: together with the manners, ceremonies, lawes, governments, and warres of the Indians. Written in Spanish by Joseph Acosta, and translated into English by E. G.

London, printed by Val. Sims for Edward Blount and William Aspley, 1604. Small 4to (190 x 135 mm), pp. [viii], 590, [14], [2, blank]; both blanks (A1 and b4) present; old repair affecting A1; contemporary calf, gilt; finely rebacked preserving original spine; with two old ownership inscriptions, of ‘J. Strange’ (one dated 1633), on title, and the bookplate of William Charles de Meuron, seventh Earl Fitzwilliam (1872–1943) on inner paste down. First English edition. A ‘remarkable book. It was both a more thoughtful and a more thorough account of the Indian world than anything then available. Its novelty, of which Acosta was justly proud, is apparent even from the title. The idea of a “moral history”, a history, that is, of mores – of customs – was an unusual one in the sixteenth century. No one, as Acosta was at pains to point out, had ever attempted to write a true “history” of the Indians, though there had been accounts of the origin and growth of the Spanish colonies which included a (usually cursory) glance at the indigenes . . . . Of all the vast literature on the Indies during this period Acosta’s Historia was perhaps the only work which contemporaries recognised as having broken new ground’ (Pagden, The fall of natural man: the American Indian and the origins of comparative ethnology pp. 149-57).To indicate yet another facet of this exceptional work, mention can be made of Acosta’s description of mountain sickness, ‘Acosta’s disease’, experienced by him while crossing the Peruvian Andes.This English translation is the work of Edward Grimeston, made from the French version of 1598 or 1600 rather than the Spanish of 1590. It ‘made available much new information, both geographical and philosophical, to English readers [and] important and rational ideas conerning the origins of the American Indians were revealed . . . . Acosta used geographical and faunal data . . . to reinforce the theory of Indian entry into America via a strait or land bridge linking it with Asia. His ideas had a profound impact on later English writers on the subject such as Strachey, Brerewood and Purchas’ (Steele p. 17).Alden 604/1; Church 328; Cordier, Japonica 120; Garrison & Morton 2244; Sabin 131; Sommervogel I 35; STC 94; Steele 1.

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