4to, (205 x 155 mm). 4 ff. Red morocco by Riviere, lettered in gilt, all edges gilt, wear to spine, flyleaves browned. Tiny marginal wormholes, some insignificant foxing, else fine.

“[T]he first European whose presence at Newfoundland is attested by documents was Gaspar Cortereal (in 1500), from whose pilots were derived the earliest trustworthy elements for the cartography of these regions, as they appear in the Cantino map of 1502.” (C. R. B. Review of Harrisse’s Newfoundland, by H. Harrisse. The Geographical Journal 19, no. 5 (1902): 625–27).

“Two years subsequently to Cabot's voyage, Gaspar de Cortereal, a Portuguese adventurer, hoping to accomplish what his predecessor and competitor had failed to find- a north-west passage to India - set sail from Lisbon, and with two ships reached the Labrador coast, which he named "Terra Verde." He entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence; but of further exploration by him we have no authentic trace.” (Hall, E. Hepple. “Journal of the Society for Arts, Vol. 29, No. 1483.” The Journal of the Society of Arts 29, no. 1483 (1881): 475–92).

Because of the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Portuguese claimed the area for themselves “The Portuguese, for instance, who claimed Brazil, as being on their own side of this line, made the same claim with regard to the lands discovered by Cabot. They accordingly sent Cortereal to take possession of them in the name of Portugal; but his expedition came to an unfortunate end, and little was accomplished. The Portuguese kept up their claim by marking on their maps the name Terra Corterealis, or Terra de Cortereal, above which they placed Terra de Laborador de Rey de Portugall… The emphatic marking twice over on the Cabot map of 1544 of Prima terra vista, and claiming it as a portion of the mainland, together with the note describing the discovery, seem to have been intended by way of counter-claim to the Portuguese claims on behalf of Corteral… The only important disputant of the claims of Cabot appears then to be Cortereal, and his name is regularly placed against the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland on the Portuguese maps, while the Spanish and English maps name the English as the discoverers of those lands. A Latin note on a Portuguese map summarizes the voyage of Cortereal: ‘This land Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, first discovered, and took away with him savages from the woods and white bears. In it is a very great multitude of animals and birds, also fishes. The next year he suffered shipwreck, and never returned…” (The Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, and Harrisse, Henry. The Discovery of North America by John Cabot The Alleged Date and Landfall Also the Ship’s Name, the “Matthew,” a Forgery of Chatterton? By Henry Harrisse Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Documents. London : B. F. Stevens, Publisher [Chiswick Press: - Charles Whittingham and Co.], 1897.)

Accentuating the rarity, this book is not in Harrisse, however note Harrisse 48 for a description of the contents when this speech was re-printed in book six of Montalboddo's 1507 Nuovo Paesi Ritrovati.

The only copy in the records of RBH belonged to Sir Leicester Harmsworth, in levant morocco by Riviere, perhaps this is the same copy, however no internal markings to demonstrate it, and the Harmsworth catalogue did not specify other specific qualities.

Provenance: earlier foliation, two unidentified typed catalogue descriptions tipped in to inside front cover, one in English and one in Portuguese.

EDIT16 CNCE 69067. Weinstein, Donald. Ambassador from Venice, Pietro Pasqualigo in Lisbon, 1501. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [1960], including a full English translation.