Leaf [1a]: Epistola Christofori Colom, cui etas nostra multu[m] debet, de Insulis Indie supra Gangem nuper inue[n]tis. Ad quas perq[ue]rendas octauo antea mense auspiciis & ere inuictissimo[rum] Ferna[n]di & Helisabet Hispania[rum] Regu[m] missus fuerat, ad magnificum d[omi]n[u]m Gabrielem Sanchis eorunde[m] serenissimo[rum] Regum Tesaurariu[m] missa, qua[m] nobilis ac litteratus vir Leander de Cosco ab Hispano idiomate in latinum co[n]uertit tertio kal[enda]s Maii. M.cccc.xciii Pontificatus Alexandri Sexti Anno primo.
Leaf [4a], l. 27: Hec vt gesta sunt sic breuiter enarrata. Vale. Vlisbone pridie Idus Martii. Christoforus Colom Oceane classis Prefectus.
Leaf [4b]: Epigramma. R. L. de Corbaria Episcopi Montispalusii. Ad Inuictissimum Regem Hispaniarum. (4 elegiac couplets).
Translation of: Senor por que se que aureis plazer de la grand vitoria, Barcelona, 1493.
The later of the two editions printed by Plannck at Rome in 1493.
Columbus's letter to Ferdinand and Isabella upon his return from his first voyage.
Without pagination, signature-marks or catch-words; 33 lines to the full page.
Publisher:
[Rome, Stephan Plannck, after 29 April, 1493]
Subject:
America—Discovery and exploration—Early works to 1800
ExI copy is from the collection of Cyrus H. McCormick, Class of 1879.
Purchased by McCormick at the Edward N. Crane sale (NY), March 24, 1913, lot 189: 'The above is the Astor copy, which was sold as a duplicate. It belonged to Bolton Corney, Esquire, and ws No. 813 of the Catalogue of his Library, sold at auction by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hode in May, 1871. Mr. Bernard Quartich bit it in at £116, and offered it for sale in his 'List of the most interesting portion' of the Bolton Corney collection, June 25, 1871, No. 167, the price not given. It was bought by William Waldorf Astor, Esq., who presented it to the Astor Library in 1872.'
Binding note:
ExI copy is disbound, in red cloth portfolio, which in turn is enclosed in a larger red fall-down-back box.