El Orinoco ilustrado, y defendido, historia natural, civil, y geographica de este gran rio

Author: Joseph "Jose" Gumilla (1686-1750)

Year: 1745

Publisher: Manuel Fernandez

Place: Madrid

Description:

2 volumes.  [48]+403 pages with folding map and plate.. [8]+412+[16] pages with one plate and index. Quarto (7 3/4" x 6") bound in contemporary speckled calf with five raised spine bands and decorative gilt lettering to spine. (Medina, BHA 3376; Palau 111192 ("buena reedición"); Sabin 29275) Second edition, expanded and revised, of the classic 1741 history of the Orinoco region. 

Joseph Gumilla left Spain in 1705 for New Granada (today Colombia) where he studied at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He was ordained in 1714 and went to the Orinoco Mission. In 1701 he went to Venezuela and worked there for 35 years. He was sometime Rector of the School of Cartagena, Provincial Superior of New Granada, and Procurator in Rome from 1738. Here he wrote El Orinoco Ilustrado (Madrid, 1741). He returned to South America in 1743 with Filippo Salvatore Gilii. Gumilla introduced coffee into Venezuela in 1732. The beans were exported to Brazil. 

 Condition:   

Provenance: William I. Buchanan (1853-1909), who signed both title pages in 1896 during his tenure as United States Minister to Argentina.

Minor toning and dampstaining, full closed tear to leaf II:Dd2; later owner's signatures on title pages. Corners bumped and rubbed, raised spine bands rubbed, head spine volume one rubbed thought with some fraying else about very good.