Portuguese discoveries and conquests in the East

San Román de Ribadeneyra, Antonio de. Historia general de ly Yndia Oriental. Los descobrimientos, y conquistas que han hecho las armas de Portugal, enel Brasil, y en Otras partes de Africa, y de la Asia; y de la dilatacion del Santo Euangelio por aquellas grandes Provincias, desde sus principios hast.a el Año de 1557 [...].

Rare first edition of this account of the Portuguese discoveries and conquests from the second quarter of the 15th to the third quarter of the 16th century, with extensive references to Brazil, but also to Angola, the Arabian Gulf, East Africa, India, Malacca, China, Japan and the New World.

San Román de Ribadeneyra, a Spanish Benedictine from Palencia, also published an important Spanish account of King Sebastião I of Portugal's ill-fated 1578 invasion of Morocco, the "Jornada y muerte del Rey D. Sebastian" (also Valladolid, 1603).

The present copy contains the frequently missing engraved architectural title-page with a portrait of the author and the coat of arms of the Constable of Castile, Juan Fernandez de Velasco, to whom the work is dedicated. The two engravings in the text, on pages 225 and 596, show a miraculous celestial cross as well as the cross of St Thomas, the Apostle of India. Samodães (2982) provides an extensive and detailed description, exactly matching the present copy as well as the BNP copy.

Rare, only two complete copies recorded in auction (last Bloomsbury NY, 12 March 2009). Trimmed a little short with slight browning; some light waterstains near the end. A fine, complete copy in its original binding.