Virgules replaced by commas in title page transcription.

Constitutes the fourth part, sole issue of the first German edition of Theodor de Bry's Great voyages, printed in fourteen parts, in Latin, German, French, and English, in Frankfurt am Main, Oppenheim, and Hanau from 1590-1644, and the Elenchus, an outline of the thirteen Latin parts, published by Matthias Merian in Frankfurt am Main in 1634.

This work has been identified as the sole issue of the first German edition of the Great voyages by Church.

Imprint from colophon.

The first edition of German part four can be identified by line 32 of text on p. 37 ending with "gegen den" and by line 31 of text on p. 95 ending with "vnd", as with other variations on each page after a close but not identical reprinting of the sheets for the second edition.

German translation, by Nikolaus Höniger, of book one of: Historia del Mondo Nuovo / by Girolamo Benzoni, first printed Venice, 1565, and first translated into German under title: Der Newen Weldt und Indianischen Königsreichs, Basel, 1579.

German part four is supplemented by annotations supplied by Urbain Chauveton from the author's Novae Novi Orbis historiae, first printed in Geneva, 1578.

This part contains the beginning of Girolamo Benzoni's Historia del Mondo Nuovo. The remainder was published in the parts V and VI. Benzoni's work was first published in Italian at Venice in 1565. It was translated into Latin by Urbain Chauveton. He also translated the work into French. De Bry has followed Chauveton's translation which was published at Geneva in 1578, and has added to it Latin translations of some of the notes which appeared in the French edition. Cf. Church.

Despite this being a translation of book one only, the last line on p. 141 reads: Ende dess vierdten Buchs.

Title page which precedes plates, p. [2-3], 4th count, reads: Das vierdte Buch von der Neuwen Welt. Oder neuwe vnd gründtliche Historien, von dem Nidergängischen Indien, so von Christophoro Columbo im Jar 1492. erstlich erfunden. Durch Hieronymum Bentzo von Meyland, welcher 14. Jar dasselbig Land durchwandert, auffs fleissigst beschrieben vnd an Tag geben, mit nützlichen Scholien vnd Austlegungen fast auff jede Capitel, von deren Völckern Sitten, Gebräuch vnd Gottesdienst. Sampt deren Provintzen Landtafel. Alles mit schönen vnd kunstreichen Kupfferstücken vnd deren angehenckten erklärungen an Tag geben, durch Diterich von Bry, Bürger in Franckfurt am Mayn. An den Durchteuchtigen hochgebornen Fürsten und Herrn, Herren Moritzen Landtgrauen zu Hessen, &c. Mit Röm. Keys. Maiestat Priuilegien begnadet.

Contains a double map which is bound between p. [1], 4th count, and p. [2-3], 4th count; also contains plates numbered I-XXIIII, printed on recto only, and bound following p. [2-3], 4th count which are signed A2-4 through F1-5.

Signatures: A-T⁴ (A1 verso blank) V⁶ (V6 verso blank) ²A-²E⁴ ²F⁶ (²F6 blank)

Fully engraved and illustrated title page; engraved head and tail pieces; initials.

Church, E.D. Discovery, 183.

JCB Lib. cat., pre-1675, I: p. 394.

Alden, J.E. European Americana, 594/12.