Il gazzettiere americano contenente un Distinto Ragguaglio di Tutte le Parti del Nuovo.
3 vols., folio [vol. 1 = 31 x 23.5 cm, vols. 2 & 3 29 x 21 cm], (3) ff. including engraved frontispiece and title, xxiii, (1), 216 pp, (1) f.; 256 pp.; 253 pp., (1) f., with 78 maps and plates, without note to binder at end of vol. 2. Most likely a married set, with vol. 1 in contemporary vellum, lower edge of front cover exposed to pasteboard; remaining vols. in somewhat later vellum, repaired. Ownership inscription on verso of frontispiece (G. Traccalossi [?], 1869), private library stamp on half-title and frontis. Light finger-soiling, tears to half-title of vol. 1, repair to first map, repairs and staining to Martinique map (vol. 2, p. 234), occasional staining and spotting elsewhere. First Italian edition of this comprehensive geographical dictionary of the New World. “This translation of the American Gazetteer [3 vols., London, 1762], is practically a new work, having been greatly enlarged, and with eighty plates and maps engraved for this edition” (Borba, p. 347). “Of non-Iberian Europe, Italy probably had the longest tradition of travel literature. … It was therefore natural for the Italian public to be avidly interested in the new discoveries, even though... these discoveries did not directly concern the Italians” (Penrose, p. 304). The Italian editor explains that America’s growing importance in French and English affairs had produced a need for a general text on the continent, suitable for curious amateurs. The majority of the 21 maps contained in the Gazzettiere were based on those of Emanuel Bowen (1714-67), Royal Geographer of George II and Louis XV.
The Gazzettiere focuses on the current state of affairs—commerce, the arts, and European political influences—as opposed to the history of discovery. Although it purports to cover all areas of the New World, an English bias is evident in the extensive articles devoted to the New England area, particularly Boston, the “pre-eminent city of the British Empire in America” (vol. I, p. 42). A 5-page entry on Brazil appears in the first volume, featuring engravings of a toucan and a monkey and is a map of Condamine’s 1743 expedition down the Amazon. Of Cuban interest: vol. I contains 4 text pages (pp. 140-44) and a folding map of the islands; vol. II contains 5 text pages and a plan of the port of Havana. Naturally Cuba also appears in the volumes’ regional maps.
* Sabin 26814; Howes, A 207; Borba, p. 347 (faulty collation).
Price: $4,500.00