Watch List notes:

Dutch manuscript by Pieter Vander Aa (1706) entitled Verscheyde Scheeps-Togten na Florida, door Pontius, Ribald, Laudonniere, Gourgues en Andere, regarding the 1562-5 French expedition in Florida, containing many woodcut engravings and a map, very rare. 9" x 14," 60 + 5 pages. We put this item under Engravings, but the fact is that it falls under all our categories of Documents, as it is a book with maps and many engravings (34 illustrations in all), and at least to Floridians it is (or should be) one of the most important documents we have ever offered, as it recounts one of the earliest and most sordid pieces of Florida history: The French Huguenot expedition under Ribault to colonize Florida and its subsequent extermination by the Spanish under Melendez in 1565. The map (loose) and engravings throughout are intricate and beautiful, showing all manner of ships and landscapes and humans (mostly natives but also a few Europeans), both in peace and (more often) in warfare, particularly showing gruesome executions and dismemberings, also one with alligators being skewered, all apparently very closely copied from originals by Theodor de Bry. In well used condition, with small holes and tears in margins and rather loose overall, yet with a minimum of foxing and staining. Accompanied by the book A Hundred Giants (2014), by Algoet, Armstrong and Baer, in which this manuscript is reproduced in its entirety.

Estimate: $2000 - 3000