Sir Walter Raleigh Discovery Books and Sailor Narratives by Winship. 

Size: (tallest) 9 1/2 X 6 5/8 X 1 in. 

This lot consists of three books - two in boxed sets which include a title by Sir Walter Raleigh and Antonie Galvano in one book and one about Sailors’ Narratives of Voyages around New England between 1524 and 1624 in the third book. 

The two boxed sets contain matching books - they have the same titles, the same amount of pages etc - and they are modern reprints of a Raleigh title written in 1595 and a title written by Antonie Galvano in 1601. The Raleigh title is The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empire  of Guiana, with a relation of the great and Golden City of Manoa (which the Spanyards call El Dorado) And of the Provinces of Emeria, Arromaia, Amapaoia and other Countries, with their rivers adioyning. It was written by Sir Walter Ralegh [Raleigh], captain of her Majesties Guard and imprinted in London by Robert Robinson in 1596, and today it is simply referred to as The Discovery of Guiana. The Galvano title included the second half of the Raleigh book is titled Discoveries of the World from their first originall unto the year of our Lord 1555. Briefly written in the Portugall tongue by Antonie Galvano, Governour of Ternate, the chief Island of the Malucos: Corrected, quoted, and published in English by Richard Hakluyt in London in 1601. The Discoverie of Guiana has an eight-page dedication (Dedicatorie), six pages addressed to the reader, and 112 pages of text about the Discoverie of Guiana, followed by the Galvano title,  which has a five-page dedicatory epistle (the Epistle Dedicatorie), a four-page note about the death of Galvano, then 97 pages of text, and a page at the rear which says the book is a facsimile reprint of Ralegh’s book about Guiana from 1596 and a facsimile reprint of the Galvano book from 1601, and the whole book was put out by World Publishing in 1966 and printed in Italy. The books are housed in felt-lined boxes along with a pamphlet from Bibliotheca Americana about The Discoverie of Guiana by Raleigh and the Discoveries of the World by Galvano; the books appear to be bound in vellum over boards, the spines are decorated in gilt letters and the front covers have gilt-decorated crests with fleurs-de-lis on them, and there are ties along the right edge of the covers to seal the books tight. (The ties are an added touch by the publisher to make the books look good.) The felt-lined boxes measures 8 x 6 7/ 16 inches wide with paper labels on the spines and front and back covers, and the boxes and books are in terrific condition, with tight bindings and clean pages and text, a faded paper label on the spine of one of the boxes, a small blemish on the paper label on the front of the other boxed set, and light blemishes at the tips of the boxes and that’s it. Sir Walter Raleigh (circa 1553 - 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading role in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion in Ireland, helped defend England against the Spanish Armada and was an ardent supporter of Queen Elizabeth I. He served her as a courtier, soldier, and naval advisor, and she granted him various favors and privileges. He became one of her favorites. However, his fortunes declined after Elizabeth's death, as she  was succeeded by King James I, who viewed Raleigh as a rival. In 1594, Raleigh heard about a "City of Gold" in South America and sailed to find it, publishing an exaggerated account of his experiences in a book that contributed to the legend of "El Dorado". After Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower of London for being involved in a plot against King James I. In 1616, he was released to lead a second expedition in search of El Dorado. During the expedition, men led by his top commander sacked a Spanish outpost, in violation of both the terms of his pardon and a 1604 peace treaty with Spain. Raleigh returned to England and, to appease the Spanish, he was arrested and executed in 1618. Antonio Galvao (circa 1490 - 1557), also known as Antonio Galvano, was a Portuguese soldier, chronicler and administrator in the Maluku islands [the Malucos], and a Renaissance historian who was the first person to present a comprehensive report of the leading voyages by Portuguese explorers up to 1550. His works, especially the Treaty of Discovery that was published in Lisbon in 1563 and in English by Richard Hakluyt in 1601, are notably accurate. 

The Winship book is titled “Sailors’ Narratives of Voyages Along the New England Coast 1524 - 1624” edited by George Parker Winship. Winship (1871 - 1952) was an American librarian, author, teacher, and bibliographer. Born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard in 1893 and became a member of the American Antiquarian Society, and in 1915 he was appointed a lecturer on the history of printing and championed the use of rare books in education, and he edited a number of historical works, including this book here. The book has brown covers, gilt lettering and a Burt Franklin colophon on the spine, with blank endpapers, a frontis image of John Smith’s map of New England, the title page says the book is #188 in the Burt Franklin Research Source Series and #30 in the American Classics in History and Social Science series. It has a one-page list of Contents, a one-page list of Illustrations, 292 pages of text, it was published in 1968, according to WorldCat, and it’s a reprint of the first edition from 1905. The book measures 9 1/2 x 6 5/8 inches wide and is in exquisite condition. The binding is tight and the pages and text are all very clean, as are the illustrations, and we found only two copies of this book listed on the rare book website we use. 

We couldn’t find much information about the Raleigh / Galvano books on the rare book website we use, so we had to call around the country to find auction estimates for the books, and we finally contacted Bauman Rare Books in New York to get a handle on the price - they sold a single copy in fine condition a few years ago for $300, and that was just for a single copy from 1966, and we’re giving them a plug here for helping us out. We can’t even estimate the value of the original published in 1596, but it has to be way up there in value. And as luck would have it, we found several copies of the 1966 title offered for sale later on and they ranged in value up to $200.