G. Botero - Delle Relationi Universali - 1597

Giovanni Botero Benese
Delle Relationi Universali, Fourth Part.
In which are treated the superstitions that the peoples of the New World already lived by; and the difficulties, and the means by which the Christian and true Religion has been introduced there.
With the Table of the most notable things.
In Vicenza, near Giorgio Greco, (1597).

Format: 18.7 × 13 cm (in-8°).
Pages: (16), 79, (1) pp.

Binding in somewhat later cardboard, loosened and with signs of use.
A complete copy of the text of the Fourth Part, but with omissions: lacks leaf a7 (index), a1-a2, a7-a8 and d3 to d6. Damp stains and widespread browning typical of the era, margins worn but intact.

This is the Fourth Part of the famous Relationi Universali, one of the most important texts of the late sixteenth century on the political geography, religions and customs of the known world. In this section Botero describes in detail the populations of the New World (with particular attention to Brazil, Mexico, Peru and other American regions), their superstitions, idolatries, rites and sacrifices, as well as the challenges and methods of Christian evangelization by Spaniards, Portuguese and missionary Franciscans, Jesuits and other orders. It includes historical references to figures such as Montezuma, prodigious events, conversions, and comparisons between European and indigenous cultures. The tone is that of the Counter-Reformation: ethnographic curiosity joined to apologetic and missionary aims.

A fundamental work in the history of geographical literature and colonial relations of the sixteenth century, Botero's Relationi Universali achieved enormous editorial success (numerous editions in a few years, translations into various European languages) and deeply influenced the political and ethnographic thought of the era. The Fourth Part, dedicated to the New World, is particularly sought after for its vivid descriptions of American civilizations shortly after the Conquest.

The Vicentine edition of 1597 is one of the earliest reprints of the four-part version and is extremely rare on the antiquarian market, especially in complete or partial copies of this specific part.

Even with the noted missing parts and modest conditions (loose and stained), this is a piece of great historical-bibliographical interest for Americana collectors, missionary scholars, or Italian literature of the sixteenth century. An opportunity to acquire a significant fragment of a Renaissance geography classic.