PHILOPONUS, Honorius; Philoponus

Nova typis transacta navigatio

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1621 KILIAN, Wolfgang. Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio. Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis. By Honorius Philoponus, (pseud. of Caspar Plautius, O.S.B.). Collation: )(4, 2)(2, A-N4. Engraved emblematic title (included in first quire), [10], 101, [3] pp. Illustrated with 19 numbered engraved plates (all but the first and plates 8 and 15 bound in lengthwise and folding), plus the unnumbered "Owl" plate; 3 woodcut diagrams on f. 2)(1v, woodcut factotum initials, type ornament head-pieces, woodcut tail-piece. Printed music on f. E2. Folio, 300 x 196 mm, bound in contemporary limp vellum. [Linz, s.n.], 1621. First Edition, second, enlarged issue of this famous account of the Benedictine missionaries who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas. The book has been called "one of the most curious and interesting pictorial volumes of Americana, and of great rarity." Part history, part fantasy, this odd work chronicles the evangelisation of America by the Catalonian Benedictine Bernardo Buil (or Boyl), Abbot of Monserrat, who with twelve of his followers travelled with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to Hispaniola (Haiti) in 1493. Considered the first Patriarch of the region, Buil served as Viscount General of the West Indies. In this capacity he often quarreled vehemently with Columbus, and upon returning to Spain lodged a formal complaint with King Ferdinand against the explorer's conduct. Ferdinand ruled in Columbus's favor, and Buil retired to the Abbey of Cuxa. The work was written pseudonymously by Caspar Plautius, O.S.B. of Munich, and Abbot of Seitenstetten (Austria) from 1610 to 1627. Plautius' account of the early Benedictine missionaries' achievements is laced with marvels and miracles, the actual voyage of the monks being conflated with other, legendary voyages (notably that of the Irish Saint Brendan), and he dwells on the cruelties of the native inhabitants in support of the notion that Satan ruled the native American religions. The work is nonetheless filled with authentic details of Caribbean customs, agricultural products, local flora and fauna, and arts (including music: the specimen of printed music on pp. 35-36 represents an early printed example of Native American chants). The notoriously immodest dedicatory epistle from the author to himself attests to his own great learning. "In the most fulsome style… he inscribes the work to himself in a long and highly complimentary dedication. He accuses the DeBrys, in their great collection of voyages, of telling outrageous lies, forgetting apparently his own whackers."--Henry Stevens, Bibiotheca. Historica, 1549. Although the place of publication is not given, the book was printed in nearby Linz, according to H.J. Wynkelmann's near contemporary work entitled Der Amerikanischen neuen Welt beschreibung (Oldenburg, 1664, p. 30). Most interesting are the copperplate engravings, first-rate examples of the dense narrative style associated with the de Bry Voyages. Only the first engraving is signed, by Wolfgang Kilian (1581-1662), Augsburg master-engraver, but the others are comparable in style and were probably also executed by him. The engraved architectonic title shows at top a reptilian Satan vanquished by the Pascal lamb amidst other emblematic objects; flanking the title are St. Brendan and Father Buil, the latter baptizing an Indian; at their feet a phoenix and a pelican with her piety, and at bottom center a small map showing India and America, with ship-studded seas between, on either shore a crowned column. This issue contains an additional emblematic plate of an owl between a royal crown and a bishop's mitre, symbolizing the Benedictine's achievements for the crown of Spain. Plate 1, purportedly Columbus with a hemispherical map, is a copy of the de Bry portrait of Francisco Pizarro on a map in the Great Voyages series. Plate 2 represents St. Brendan celebrating mass on the back of a whale; to the east are the landmasses of Spain and Africa, to the north the mythic island of St. Brendan (whose existence was not definitively disproved until the nineteenth century). The other extraordinary engravings depict the Spanish court, the fleet disembarking from Spain, cannibals attacking and roasting members of the Spanish crew, several friendlier scenes of local hospitality, one showing mounds of local fruit and an iguana served on European silver, the missionaries toppling the Indians' altar with disastrous consequences, a front- and back view of the Indians' idol, indigenous fruit and flowers, construction of a Christian church, Indian noblemen riding a sea-monster, a Christian mass, and various acts of barbaric cruelty, some perpetrated by Church dignitaries. All of exceptionally high quality, the engravings are here present in crisp, dark impressions. The specimen of printed music on pp. 35-36 represents an early printed example of Native American chants. In this second issue quires )( & N were reset, the latter now including a final errata page, and a new quire containing observations on the lodestone was added. The Owl plate is here bound in preceding the errata leaf (N4), instead of at the end of the preface to the reader, as instructed in the printed placement note for the binder. Engraved title with short clean tear along platemark, neatly repaired tear in pl. 7, short tear into pl. 10, binding recased, else a fine, tall copy with full margins and fresh impressions of the famous engraved plates. Rare. Alden/Landis 621:100. Sabin 63367. Palau 22462. Leclerc 447. Streit II, 1527. JCB II, 156. Palau & Dulcet VI, 107.

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