The Spanish Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant' Angel Escribano de Racion of the Kingdom of Arago Dated 15 February 1493 Reprinted in facsimile… from the Unique Copy of the Original Edition (printed at Barcelona early April 1493) now in possession of Bernard Quaritch.

PROOF COPY, translators pencil signature to frontispiece and detailed manuscript corrections and amendments throughout, 4 coloured plates, original roan-backed cloth, spine worn, folio, London, Bernard Quaritch, 1891

A facsimile of the famous ‘Columbus Letter’, the first printed account of the New World, which Christopher Columbus wrote to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to inform them of his discovery of land, although at the time he still thought it was part of the Indies. The letter was written in Spanish and sent to Rome, where it was printed in Latin by Stephan Plannck. In addition to announcing his momentous discovery, Columbus’s letter also provides observations of the native people’s culture and lack of weapons. Columbus declares that the land could easily be conquered by Spain.

The letter was soon printed in Barcelona and the only known copy of this printed version was discovered in Spain in 1889, was bought by Bernard Quaritch from a French dealer in 1890 and sold by him in 1892 to the Lenox Library in New York (now part of the New York Public Library). It is, by common acclaim, the most valuable item of printed Americana ever to have appeared on the market. No other copy of this, the earliest edition, a folio printed in Spanish at Barcelona in 1493, is known.

Michael Kerney was the chief cataloguer at the antiquarian bookseller Bernard Quaritch and responsible for many of the firm’s distinguished catalogues and productions. Kerney was responsible for an enduring contribution to scholarship, producing the first authoritative study of the Spanish Letter of Columbus document. A natural linguist with an extensive knowledge of books and early manuscripts he taught himself Arabic, Persia and other eastern tongues to add to his Greek, Latin and various modern European languages.

A proof copy of a scarce and important work that contributes scholastic validity to the claim of the first piece of printing to reveal to the Old World the existence of the New.