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COLUMBUS, Christopher.
The Spanish Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant' Angel
Escribano de Racion of the Kingdom of Aragon Dated 15 February 1493 reprinted in facsimile, translated, and edited from the unique copy of the original edition (printed at Barcelona early in April 1493).
First edition, presentation copy to George Earle Buckle, inscribed on the blank facing the title: "Presented to the Editor of the Times by Bernard Quaritch, London, Feb. 14, 1891". At this time it was thought that Columbus wrote three letters describing the discoveries of his first voyage: one addressed to Luis de Santangel, Keeper of Accounts of Aragon, dated 15 February 1493; which was sent along with a second addressed to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, of which no copy has survived; and a third sent to Gabriel Sanchez, Treasurer of Aragon, dated 15 March 1493. More likely is that all three letters were derived from the lost single manuscript sent to Ferdinand and Isabella from which copies were then made and endorsed to several court officials. Nevertheless the Santangel letter is the earliest surviving and this, the only extant copy of the first edition, was acquired by the London bookseller Bernard Quaritch in 1891, and published in this tall facsimile edition with an introduction by Quaritch's chief cataloguer Michael Kerney. The letter itself was sold to the Lenox Library in New York, now the New York Public Library, where it still resides.
Folio. Original quarter red roan, red cloth boards, unlettered, dark green endpapers, red morocco inner hinges, all as issued. Spine ends rubbed, rear morocco hinge lifting at foot, a few minor marks to the cloth, a very good copy.
