L’HISTOIRE UNIVERSELLE DU MONDE, CONTENANT L’ENTIÈRE DESCRIPTION & SITUATIÕ DES QUATRE PARTIES DE LA TERRE

François de BELLEFOREST (1530-1583).

 L’Histoire universelle du monde, contenant l’entière description & situatiõ des quatre parties de la terre, la division & estenduë d’une chacune Region & Province d’icelles. Ensemble l’origine & particulieres mœurs, loix, coustumes, relligion, & ceremonies de toutes les nations, & peuples par qui elles sont habitées.

Paris: Gervais Mallot, 1570. Small folio (9 1/8 x 6 inches; 231 x 152 mm). Leaves [i-xviii]; 1-69, “62” (i.e. 70), 71-297, “302: (i.e. 298), 299—317; [i-xiii including final ‘Extrait du Privilege’ leaf]. Ruled in red throughout, numerous decorative initials. (Leaves numbered 1, 2 and 161 close-shaved with loss of a few characters from the marginal notes). Later calf, spine gilt (worn).

Provenance: Samuel Latham Mitchell Barlow  (1826-1889, bookplate, sale American Art Association.  Catalogue of the American library of the late Samuel Latham Mitchell Barlow 3^rd Feb 1889 lot 218); G.J. Bonner (signature); Maud Cabot (signature)

First edition, this copy from a distinguished Americana collection. The polymath François de Belleforest (1530–1583) was a prolific author and, for a time, royal historiographer. This work, published in 1570 and followed by several later editions, is a partial and substantially enlarged translation of Johann Boemus’s Omnium Gentium Mores, Leges et Ritus (14??–c.1520). It is divided into four sections dealing respectively with Africa, Asia, Europe, and “the New Lands.” This final section is not from Boemus’s work but was compiled by Belleforest from various other contemporary sources. It discusses New France, Canada, Florida, Cuba, Haiti, Peru, and elsewhere.

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