Beschreibung:

DIAZ DEL CASTILLO, Bernal (ca 1492-1581). Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva-Espana. Madrid: Imprenta del Reyno, 1632.
DIAZ DEL CASTILLO, Bernal (ca 1492-1581). Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva-Espana. Madrid: Imprenta del Reyno, 1632. 2° (289 x 201 mm). Title within woodcut border, head and tailpieces, initials. (Clean long tear in margin of E7, lower corner of F3 torn away, one or two spots.) Contemporary limp vellum, ties (lightly soiled). Second edition with letterpress title-page, of the most important work on the explorations of Hernan Cortez and the conquest of Mexico. Recent scholarship has shown this edition with the letterpress title to be the second edition and not the first. Although the first and second edition are both dated 1632, small changes in type use indicate that this second edition was printed early in the 18th century. Diaz, an eye-witness to all dealings with the Aztecs and other Indians, participated in some 120 battles during Cortez's expedition through Central America and was an eyewitness to the entire epic conquest of Mexico, from 1519 to 1521. In 1524, he accompanied Cortés on the expedition to Honduras. The Historia verdadero de la conquista de la la Nueva España was written between 1552 and 1557 in opposition to the previously published narrative of the conquest by Lopez de Gomara, Chaplain of the Cortés expedition; Diaz del Castillo's account constitutes perhaps the principal authority for the history of the conquest. He remained in Mexico until 1541, then relocated to the colony in Guatemala, where he lived out the rest of his life. Alden & Landis 632/27; Palau 72354; Sabin 19978.