[VIRGINIA] Historien und Bericht von dem newlicher Zeit erfundenen Königreich China,

wie es nach umbstenden, so zu einer rechtmessigen Beschreibung gehören, darumb beschaffen : item, von dem auch new erfundenen Lande Virginia : jetzund auffs newe ubersehen, unnd mit einem Zusatz vermehret, nemlich, wie es umb die Religion in Perser unnd Mohrenland, unter Priester Johan bewand sey. Jn Druck verfertiget / durch MATTHAEVM DRESSERVM D. der Sprachen vnd Historien Professorn. Leipzig : Frantz Schnellboltz, typis haeredum Beyeri, 1598. Quarto, quarter vellum over papered boards, gilt-lettered title label to spine; front pastedown with bookplate of The Explorer’s Club, and book label of H. P. Kraus; pp. [xii], 297; main title in red and black, divisional title at p. 171, colophon on p. 297 is dated 1597; Gothic black-letter type printed on brown paper; internally clean, and excellent copy.

Containing the first German edition of Hariot’s Virginia.

This is the second issue – identical in every respect to the first issue of 1597, except for the date 1598 on the main title – of the first edition of an important travelogue compiled by the humanist historian Matthaeus Dresser (1536-1607). The main part of this work is an abridged translation of the Historia de las cosas mas notables, ritos, y costumbres, del gran reyno de la China of Juan González de Mendoza (Rome, 1585). Appended to this report on China is an account of Virginia (pp. 171-231), which is a translation into German by ‘Christophorus P.’ of A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588), by Thomas Hariot (Harriot) – the first book on North America to be written by an Englishman who had had first-hand experience of the continent. The work is completed by brief accounts of Abyssinia and Persia.

In 1580, the Spanish Augustinian Juan Pedro González de Mendoza (1545-1618) had been nominated by  Philip II to lead a new embassy to the Ming emperor of China, in order to request permission for the Augustinians to establish a mission and conduct commerce there. Despite travelling no further than Mexico, Mendoza was able to gather from various sources extensive information on China which proved sufficient for him to write his important Historia, published in Rome in 1585.

Thomas Hariot was a member of the first Raleigh-sponsored settlement on Roanoke Island (1585-86). In spite of its modest 13,000-word length, his account of the colony contains a wealth of detail. Here, in German translation, it is accorded its own title-page, which is worded Wunderbarlicher doch Warhafftiger Bericht, von der LANDSCHAFFT VIRGINIA INN DER NEWEN WELT erstlichen in Engelendischer Sprach beschrieben durch THOM.AM HARIOT und hernach in Teutsch gebracht durch CHRISTOPHORUM P.

The first issue of Dressler’s Historien und Bericht von dem newlicher Zeit erfundenen Königreich China, including its Virginia appendix, had appeared in 1597 (Leipzig : Schnellboltz). It is an exceptional rarity, but the second issue of 1598 is no less scarce, having appeared only once at auction in over a century (Swann, 1972). Another edition was published in Halle by Greber, also in 1598.

Sabin 20926