First edition of the author's first work; Aboal Amaro, Amerigo Vespucci, page 31. Leclerc, 263 (does not mention this edition). Sabin, 10704.
Contemporary limp cream paper boards, plain spine, original binding.
Spine worn with some loss, a marginal stain affecting two leaves at the beginning, otherwise a clean and attractive copy.
This essay, in which the author argued "with a certain force of reasoning" (Larousse) that Vespucci discovered America before Christopher Columbus, was awarded the prize of the Academy of Cortona in 1788. The Florentine scholar Stanislas Canovai (1740–1811) devoted his life to restoring the reputation of the famed navigator Amerigo Vespucci, publishing several works on the subject. The last of these, published posthumously in 1817, is mentioned by Sabin with the following comment: "It is hardly possible to understand how calumnies against Amerigo, which have so long been taught in every school, could have, for many years, survived this excellent refutation."
Leclerc notes: "A dissertation much attacked, which gave rise to numerous inquiries into early Spanish voyages to the Indies." Dedication epistle to Giovanni Luigi di Durfort.
Manuscript ex-libris on the title page and engraved armorial bookplate pasted on the front pastedown.