Leo Africanus (al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzân) - "Historiale description de l'Afrique, tierce partie du monde." - Jean Temporal - 1556

Leo Africanus (al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzân)

"Historiale description de l'Afrique, tierce partie du monde."

-Translated into French by Jean Temporal

-Published in Lyon by Jean Temporal - 1556

-Folio (33.5 × 22 cm) in Two volumes (of two). 

-Collation: [20], 495 (actually 499), [12]; [10], 160; [8], 307, 64 (of 70) pp. Lacking six pages at the end.

-Double page map of Africa in duplicate (as called for)

-Both volumes bound in matching  restored contemporary gilt French calf binding.

-Condition: Some browning, foxing and stains. light waterstaining to the end of one volume. Several costume woodcuts with contemporary pen marks and manuscript marginalia in places. Occasional worming and tears. Overall very good.

The first French edition of Leo Africanus' celebrated description of Africa in (restored) contemporary bindings. This monumental collection is the first major collection of voyages printed in France with illustrations. The translation is based on Ramusio's Primo volume delle navigationi which was first published in Venice in 1550. Alongside it's description of Africa by various authors (including Leo Africanus) it also includes important descriptions of Arabia, Persia, Goa, Calicut, Ceylon, and Asia.

Volume one includes eight landmark voyages spanning antiquity to the Renaissance. It opens with Hanno the Carthaginian s account of early African exploration, followed by a Portuguese pilot s practical navigation. At its heart lies Leo Africanus' celebrated Description of Africa in nine books the most influential early ethnography of the continent. Alongside are the Venetian Alvise da Cadamosto's pioneering voyages to West Africa, including further reports on the land of the Blacks, and the related account of Pierre de Sintré. A Portuguese pilot's navigation from Lisbon to São Tomé illustrates the growth of the Gulf of Guinea trade, while the collection closes with Amerigo Vespucci s famous letters to Piero Soderini, which fixed the name America in European consciousness.

The second volume brings together some of the most important Portuguese and Italian testimonies of discovery and encounter. It opens with the voyages of Vasco da Gama, Pedro Alvares Cabral, Thomas Lopes, and Giovanni da Empoli accounts central to the opening of the sea route to India and the mapping of Brazil. These are followed by Ludovico de Varthema of Bologna s celebrated travels, the earliest detailed European account of Arabia, Egypt, and India. From antiquity is included the rare voyage of Iamboulos, the Greek merchant, with its curious ethnographic descriptions. The Florentine Andrea Corsali's letters, sent from Cochin, describe India, Madagascar, and the early Portuguese presence in the East. The correspondence of Queen Helena of Ethiopia with King Manuel of Portugal provides a striking African voice within the collection. Part two of the second volume is devoted to Ethiopia, led by Francisco Alvares s invaluable description of his 1520 27 mission to Prester John, accompanied by royal Ethiopian letters to Pope Clement VII and the kings of Portugal. The volume closes with an important discourse on the Nile by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, paired with a learned response by Girolamo Fracastoro.

The volumes are illustrated with two repeated woodcut title-borders, a printer's device, two double-page woodcut maps, and 36 mostly large in-text woodcuts, including striking depictions of costume. The great double-printed map of Africa in south projection is present in both volumes (as required), together with a full-page map of North and Central Africa with the Nile reaching its conjectured sources.