Il viaggio fatto in Spagna, et in Francia...Con la descrizione particolare delli luoghi, e costumi delli popoli di quelle province. - [WONDERS FROM THE NEW WORLD] de NAVAGERO, ANDREA - 1563

1563. Venezia, Domenici Farri, 1563. 8vo. In contemporary full limp vellum with title in contemporary hand to spine. A few small worm tracts to boards and spine slightly discoloured. Title-page with name crossed out and repair to verso of title-page. Occasional contemporary marginal annotations throughout. Last five leaves with damp stain, otherwise an overall nice copy. (4), 68 ff. Rare first edition, published posthumously, of Andrea Navagero’s important account of his travels in Spain. Being the Venetian ambassador to Spain, Navagero was invited to observe and try much new that the Spanish King had brought from the New World; the present publication contains a wealth of important new material, including the earliest description of a potato (batatas) being tasted in Europe and one of the very earliest accounts of Indians on European soil, as well as their fascinating ballgame ullamaliztli (which is said to be a precurser to football), played – to much amazement – with a rubberball. In general, the present work is a fine testimony to the splendor, amazement and multifaceted new reality that the recently discovered “New World” brought about in Europa, beginning with Spain. Spain’s Golden Age witnessed the “discovery” and exploration of America, or Las Indias as it was commonly known in Spain. The exploration of this new land revolutionized, amongst many other things, food and eating traditions in Europe; with the returning explorers and colonists came the importation of exotic goods such as potatoes, tomatoes, pineapples, avocados, cocoa, and vanilla, to name a few. Learning that natives in Las Indias ate these unusual foods, some Europeans did venture to try them. “As early as March 1526, the Venetian ambassador to Spain, Andrea Navagero, had sampled “batatas”: “I ate the roots of what they call ‘batatas’ which tasted like chestnuts. I … also ate … a delicious fruit … which had the flavour of something between melon and peach” (Viaje 40. The name of the fruit is missing, but it was possibly a pineapple). Of course, over time these fruits and vegetables, along with other products (e.g. turkey), were adopted and become staples, to such a degree that their American origin has been lost.” (Navagero, Andres Viaje por España (1524-1526) Madrid 1983 (Transl. Antonio Maria Fabie)). The mention of a potato (“batatas”) in the present work is not merely a curiosity, but is of great importance to the history of the most important new food to come to Europe. It is generally believed that the potato arrived later in Europe than the present publication bears witness to. Sailors returning from the Andes to Spain with silver presumably brought maize and potatoes for their own food on the trip, and historians “think that the potato arrived some years before the end of the 16th century, by two different ports of entry: the first, logically, in Spain around 1570, and the second via the British Isles between 1588 and 1593 ... we find traces of the transport of potatoes travelling from the Canaries to Antwerp in 1567 ... we can say that the potato was introduced there [the Canary islands] from South America around 1562 ... the first written mention of the potato [is] ... a receipt for delivery dated 28 November 1567 between Las Palmas in the Grand Canaries and Antwerp." (by M. Pitrat and C. Foury : Histoires de légumes , Institut National de la recherche agronomique, 2003, p. 164 ) Navagero’s description of having eaten a potato predates this by several decades, as he must have tried it in the 20’ies. And the written description of it, in print even, predates what is otherwise thought to be the first written account (a receipt from November 1567) by three years, thus being the first known written mention of a potato and the first printed mention of a potato. The potato completely revolutionized food consumption in Europe and played a significant role in both health, longevity of living, and culture of consumption. In 1785, The "Bon Jardinier" says of the potato: "There is no vegetable about which so much has been written and so much enthusiasm has been shown ... The poor should be quite content with this foodstuff." By the 19th century, it had widely replaced the turnip and rutabaga, and by then, the most important new food in the 19th century in Europe was the potato, which had three major advantages over other foods for the consumer: its lower rate of spoilage, its bulk (which easily satisfied hunger) and its cheapness. The crop slowly spread across Europe, becoming a major staple by mid-century. In 1525 Navagero was elected Venetian ambassador to Spain, and in March 1526 he represented the Republic at Charles V and Isabella of Portugal’s sumptuous wedding in Seville and he remained in Spain until 1528. Functioning as an ambassador Navagero composed the present work which he wished to place halfway between the ambassador's reports, which it was strictly forbidden to disclose and, consequently, sought after and the travel manual with its typical lists and itineraries, and, at the same time, intended to respond to the curiosity of the group of humanists with whom he was in close contact with. The publisher, Farri, perfectly understood the dual nature of the text and while putting the odeporico aspect in the foreground, he wanted to emphasize the official diplomatic role that the author had played, to draw the public’s attention to the secret aspects. Seven years prior to Navagero’s visit, Hernan Cortez, acting without the authorization of the Spanish throne, had invaded Mexico and toppled the Triple Alliance. The king and queen had to decide what to do with their millions of new subjects. Some argued that they should be enslaved, because they were naturally inferior; others, that they should be converted to Christianity and made full citizens of Spain. “To demonstrate the intelligence, skills, and noble demeanor of the peoples of the Triple Alliance, the antislavery faction of the Spanish church had imported a group of the Indians to Seville. The Indians divided into teams and played a showcase version of the Mesoamerican sport of ullamaliztli, which the Venetian ambassor attended. He was mesmerized by ullamaliztli, which he seems to have thought was a performance akin to a juggling act (team sports had been played in the Roman Empire but were than almost unknown in Europe). In ullamaliztli two squads vied to drive a ball through hoops on the opposite end of a field – an early version of soccer, one might say, except that the ball was never supposed to touch the ground and players could hit it only with their hips, chests, and thighs. Dressed in padded breechcloths and wrist protectors like thick fingerless mittens, the players knocked a first-sized ball back and forth “with so much dexterity that it was marvelous to see” Navagero reported, “sometimes throwing themselves completely on the ground to return the ball, and all of this done with great speed. As fascinating to Navagero as the ball was the ball itself. European balls were typically made of leather and stuffed with wool or feathers. These were something different. They “bounded copiously,” Navagero said, ricocheting in a headlong way unlike anything he had seen before. The Indian balls, he gussed, were somehow made, from the pitch of a wood that was very light. Equally puzzled was Navagero’s fried Pietro Martire d’Anghiera, who saw a game at about the same time. When the Indian balls “touch the ground, even though lightly thrown, they spring into the air with the most incredible leaps. I do not understand how these heavy balls are so elastic. Navagero and d’Anghiera had a right to be confounded: they were encountering a novel form of matter. The balls were made of rubber. In chemical terms, rubber is an elastomer, so named because many elastomers can stretch an bounce. No Europeans had ever seen one before” (Mann, Charles C. Mann 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, p.242) Andrea Navagero, a member of the Venetian patriciate, in 1504 joined the Maggior Consiglio, while he was still perfecting the classical studies begun under Marco Antonio Sabellico and later finished in Padua under Marco Musuro. At the University of Padua, together with Girolamo Fracastoro and Luca Gaurico, he also attended the courses of Pietro Pomponazzi. Navagero, presumably through Muruso, had a close relationship with Venetian publisher Aldus Manutius. It was Navagero, together with Musurus, that encouraged Aldus to resume his publishing activity after the long interruption of 1505-1512. The printer subsequently dedicated the Pindarus edition of January 1513 to Navagero, praising the latter’s intelligence, literary skills, and moral virtue. Navagero was also a member of the Aldine Academy, founded in 1502, and edited several classical texts for Aldus, including the rhetorical works by Cicero, Quintilianus, Virgil and Lucretius, while his three-volume edition of Cicero’s Orationes would be issued by Aldus’s successor Andrea Torresano in 1519. The long stay in Spain provided an occasion for fruitful exchanges, the collation of ancient manuscripts, and conversations with antiquarians, historians, geographers and poets, such as Garcilaso de la Vega, whom he introduced to Petrarch’s poetry. The present work constitutes an early example of some of the practical consequences of the massive interchange of people and animals that took place beween the Eastern and Western Hemispheres in the early 16th century.