• Home
  • Theodore de Bry. America

Theodore de Bry. America

30.00
125.00
        SPECIAL OFFER

          Please select all product options

          Product was out of stock

          share
          Description
          Two new continents unveiled by Theodore de BryWhen Flemish engraver and publisher Theodore de Bry issued the first volume of his America series in 1590, the New World was, for most Europeans, truly novel. Gleaned from the travel accounts of adventurers like Thomas Harriot, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh, De Bry��s magnificent engravings brought the new continent and its inhabitants to an enraptured audience across the Atlantic.

          From ��Virginia�� (today��s North Carolina) and Florida through Central America and down into Patagonia, the first nine volumes of America depict scenery and encounters between native Americans and Europeans, revealing the latter��s perceptions of the former. Portrayals of European discovery and native American customs were based on the explorers�� reports as well as De Bry��s own imagination, he himself never having traveled to the New World. Although based in Frankfurt, De Bry laid the foundations of the series while in London, collaborating with artists John White and Jacques Le Moyne, whose original watercolors he adapted for the opening two volumes. With his sons, De Bry formed a family enterprise known for exquisite copper engravings and high-quality illustrations unrivaled in their mastery.

          The legacy of America is profound, coloring Europe��s earliest visions of the Atlantic world. Countless European illustrations would, throughout the following centuries, draw inspiration from the spectacular collection. TASCHEN��s edition pays homage to De Bry��s finesse, reprinting all 218 plates from the first nine volumes alongside their respective frontispieces and continental maps. Volumes I to VI are based on the original hand-colored editions held at the John Hay and John Carter Brown Libraries at Brown University in Providence; volumes VII to IX are from the Staats- und Stadtbibliothek in Augsburg, Germany.

          Exceptionally rare even at the time of their completion, De Bry��s hand-colored America can finally be admired by all, in XXL resolution.
          The authors

          Larry E. Tise is a historian and author who has held senior posts with the North Carolina Division of Archives and History and the Benjamin Franklin Memorial, among others. From 2000 to 2015, he served as the Wilbur and Orville Wright Distinguished Professor at East Carolina University, thereafter continuing as adjunct Research Professor. His research centres on early modern exploration, particularly Thomas Harriot and Sir Walter Raleigh, and on the origins of flight. From 2004 to 2025, he examined hand-colored De Bry editions in major American and European research libraries.

          Michiel van Groesen is Professor of Maritime History at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He specializes in European representations of the early modern world. His work at the intersection of textual and visual sources has resulted in three books: The Representations of the Overseas World in the De Bry Collection of Voyages (1590�C1634), published in 2008, Amsterdam��s Atlantic: Print Culture and the Making of Dutch Brazil (2017) and An Ocean of Rumours: News and Information in the Atlantic World (2026).

          Th��odore de Bry. America
          Clothbound,?28.5 x 39.5 cm,?3.64 kg,?376 pages

          ISBN 978-3-8365-7710-6

          Edition: FrenchDownload product images here