The first booke of the historie of the discouerie and conquest of the East Indias, enterprised by the Portingales, in their daungerous nauigations, in the time of King Don Iohn, the second of that name.

Which historie conteineth much varietie of matter, very profitable for all nauigators, and not vnpleasaunt to the readers. Set foorth in the Portingale language, by Hernan Lopes de Castaneda. And now translated into English, by N.L. Gentleman. Imprinted at London : by Thomas East, 1582. Small quarto (195 x 140 mm), later panelled calf; edges stained red; East India Company Library stamps to title-leaf, Tt.iii and colophon; title-leaf also with a presentation inscription dated 1832 in upper margin (restored along gutter, repaired tear at fore-edge, small loss at three corners); ff. [6], 164; woodcut initials and ornaments, including large historiated woodcut initial on B1r; verso of colophon with ownership inscription in an Elizabethan hand ‘William Comley is ye owner‘; A.ii with small perforation (loss of a couple of letters), Pp.iii with loss at upper outer corner, frequent pencilled marginalia, otherwise clean throughout; housed in a protective box of quarter calf over cloth.

Rare first English edition of Castanheda’s Historia do descobrimento & conquista da India pelos Portugueses (Book one), first published in Coimbra in 1551. The translation was made by Nicholas Lichfield (the translator’s dedication to Sir Francis Drake is signed Nicholas Lichefield, Gentleman), most likely from a Spanish or French version, rather than the original Portuguese. Although Castanheda principally chronicles the Portuguese expansion into India and the East Indies, where he himself had spent years gathering source material for his history, his work also contains significant commentary on Brazil, including its discovery by Cabral in 1500.

Sabin, 11391: “A most interesting and rare book.”