Constitutes the twelfth part, sole issue of the sole Latin edition of Theodor de Bry's Great voyages, printed in fourteen parts, in Latin, German, French, and English, in Frankfurt am Main, Oppenheim, and Hanau from 1590-1644, and the Elenchus, an outline of the thirteen Latin parts, published by Matthias Merian in Frankfurt am Main in 1634.

This work has been identified as the sole issue of part twelve of the sole Latin edition of the Great voyages by Church.

Fully engraved title page, leaf [1] recto, 1st count, is followed by letterpress title page, leaf [2] recto, 1st count, with the identical text as that of the engraved title page.

Reprinting of several parts of: Novus Orbis, sive descriptio Indiae Occidentalis / by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, printed in Amsterdam in 1622.

"Descriptio insvlarvm & continentis maris oceani, quae vulgo India Occidentalis vocantur, avthore Antonio de Herrera magno Indiarum & Castellae chronographo", leaf 1 recto to leaf 22 verso, leaf 23 recto to leaf 44 verso, 2nd through 4th counts, has separate caption title.

"Narratio nauigationis institutae mandato & auspiciis regis Hispaniarum anno M. D. C. XIIX. [sic] mense Octobri, idque à duabus Carauallis, quae soluentes portu Lisbonensi versus Australes mundi partes ad lustrandum fretum Le Maire profectae sunt, ductu D. Iuan de More capitanei, & confectis iis, quae à rege in mandatis habebant, Hispalin reuersae sunt mense Augusto anno M.D.C.XIX", leaf 45 recto to leaf 46 recto, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"Brevis narratio omnium, quae per Fretvm Magellanicvm institutae sunt, nauigationum. De Ferdinandi Magellani nauigatione", leaf 46 recto to leaf 46 verso, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"De nauigatione classis siue nauium episcopi placentiae D. Gutieres Caruaial", leaf 46 verso to leaf 47 recto, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"De tertia nauigatione per Fretum Magellanicum instituta soluentibus è Chili nauibus", leaf 47 recto, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"De quarta nauigatione D. Frey Garciae, & Iofre de Loaysa qui anno M.D.XXV. sex nauium classe, Caroli quinti imperatoris auspiciis ac mandato fretum hoc traniuerunt", leaf 47 recto, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"De nauigatione Francisci Draci versus fretum Magellanicum", leaf 47 recto to leaf 47 verso, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"De nauigatione Petri Sarmiento, qui è Lima soluens anno 1579. ad lustrandum Australe freti Magellanici littus missus fuit", leaf 48 recto, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"De nauigatione Thomae Candisch per fretum Magellanicum", leaf 48 verso, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"De altera Thomae Candisch versus fretum Magellanicum nauigatione", leaf 48 verso to leaf 49 verso, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"De nauigatione instituta per fretum Magellanicum à Iacobo Mahu & Simone de Cordes, Rotterodamo soluentibus quinque nauium classe anno 1598", leaf 49 verso to leaf 51 recto, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"De nauigatione Oliuarii de Noort, qui quatuor nauium classe anno 1598. è Belgio soluit", leaf 51 recto to leaf 51 verso, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"Catalogvs vocabulorum aliquot, quibus vtebantur indigenae insularum", leaf 52 recto to 53 verso, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"Descriptio India Occidentalis, quis nempe regionum ac prouinciarum singularum sit situs, quas quantasq[ue] velauri vel argentiopes quaeque habeant, & quomodo pereas iter institui debeat, avthore Petro Ordonnez de Cevallos, prebytero, qui ipse terras hasce & loca omnia studiose peragrauit lustrauitque", leaf 54 recto to leaf 62 verso, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"Brevis ac succincta Americae sive Noui Orbis omniumque quae in eo sunt regionum hactenus exploratarum descriptio, excerpta è Tabulis geographicis. P. Bertii", leaf 63 recto to leaf 73 recto, 4th count, has separate caption title.

"Paralipomena Americae, hoc est, necessarivs discvrsus, accvrataqve Americae descriptio, in qva tam incolarvm natvra, qvam aliae res, quarum nauigationibus, aut nulla, aut faltem obiter facta mentio est, enucleatius declarantur", leaf 73 verso to leaf 154 recto, 4th count, has separate caption title.

This part of the Great Voyages contains: 1. A description of the West Indies, by Herrera. 2. An account of a voyage made by the Nodals to explore the Straits of Magellan in 1618, written by Juan de More, a captain in that expedition. 3. Short accounts of voyages to the Straits of Magellan from 1519-1601, made by Magellan, Carvajal, de Loaysa, Drake, Cavendish, and others. 4. A vocabulary of some of the languages of the East India Indians. 5. A description of the West Indies, by Pedro Ordonnez de Cevallos. 6. A short description of America taken from the geographical tables in the atlas of P. Bertius. All these had previously been published under the title Novus Orbis, at Amsterdam in 1622, and were literally copied by De Bry, who also made use of the plates. This part closes with the Paralipomena Americae, which is merely an extract from Acosta's Historia natural y moral de las Indias, found at the beginning of part IX of the Great Voyages. Cf. Church.

Contains 15 maps within the Descriptio insvlarvm & continentis maris oceani, quae vulgo India Occidentalis vocantur", leaf 1 recto to leaf 44 verso, 2nd through 4th counts, and 19 illustrations in the text of "Paralipomena Americae, hoc est, necessarivs discvrsus, accvrataqve Americae descriptio", leaf 73 verso to leaf 154 recto, 4th count, 16 of which appeared as separate plates in part IX, and 3 of which are new to this part.

Signatures: pi1 (pi1 verso blank) A-2B⁶ (A2 verso blank) 2C⁸ (2C7 verso, 2C8 blank)

Errors in paging: leaf 41 misnumbered 40.

Fully engraved title page has engraved portraits of Ferdinand Magellan, Francisco Pizarro, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and depictions of Aztec figures; letterpress title page has engraved printer's ornament; engraved head and tail pieces; initials.

Church, E.D. Discovery, 172.

Streit, R. Bib. missionum, II:1553.

JCB Lib. cat., pre-1675, I: p. 416.

Alden, J.E. European Americana, 624/70.