First edition of Poggio’s contemporary account on De’ Conti’s travels to Syria, Arabia and the Indian Ocean in 1414/39, 1723

Poggio Bracciolini: Historia de varietate fortunae (...) nunc primum editi, & Notis illustrati a Dominico Georgio (...) With 1 etched engraved headpiece as well as numerous woodcut headpieces, culs-de-lamps and initial capitals. Paris: Antoine Urbain Coustelier, 1723.

4to (23,5:18 cm). [2 lv. (pre-title, approbatio)], XXVIII, 294 [2] pages. Engraving, woodcut and letterpress, bound in contemporary flexible cardboard with hand-written ink title on front cover and spine.

Particularly rare first printed edition of Poggio's contemporary account on Niccolò de' Conti's travels to Syria, Arabia and the Indian Ocean in 1414/39.

Contents, Author: First complete appearance in print of Poggio Bracciolini's work »De varietate fortunae« (On the Vicissitudes of Fortune). Probably finished in 1447 and dedicated to Nicholas V, the last of 7 popes Poggio served as a secretary during his long career, the Florentine humanist critically reflects about Ancient Rome (book I), the fates of various princes as examples of the „vicissitudes of fortune“ (books II and III).

Finally Poggio gives a contemporary account on the Venetian merchant and explorer Niccolò de' Conti's (c. 1359-1469) travels to Syria, Arabia and the Indian Ocean in 1414/39 (book IV, pp. 126-152). Poggio's manuscript account on de' Conti's travels gained immediate importance, as it contained for the first time detailed information about Marco Polo's voyage to the Sunda Islands and the even more distant Maluku Islands (or „Spice Islands“). On the world map in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence (from 1447), which was obviously known to Poggio, as well as the Genoese world map of Fra Mauro (1459), Poggio's account on Conti's reports are incorporated. Nevertheless numerous manuscript versions of de' Conti's travel report based on Poggio's text circulated already shortly after the author's death in 1459, present publication form 1723 is the first appearance in print.

Condition: Cover worn, fly leaf with glue residues, pagination error 72/74, otherwise well preserved copy of this particularly rare item.

Provenance: Dr. Moritz Grolig (1873-1949), Austrian librarian, bibliographer and book historian, with his pictorial book-plate on front paste-down, his monogram stamp on title page verso and at the end of the last page, as well as his personal remarks with black ink concerning purchase and of bibliographical nature on pre-title leaf recto.

Reference: Graesse V, 382f.; ÖBL 1815-1950, Bd. 2 (Lfg. 6, 1957), S. 71 (Grolig)