| Method | Copper engraving |
| Artist | Theodor de Bry |
| Published | Cum gratia & privil. Caes. Maiest. ad quadriennium. Francoforti ad Moenum, Typis Ioannis Wecheli, Sumtibus vero Theodori de Bry, Anno MDXCI. Venales reperiuntur in officina Sigismundi Feirabendii [1591 1st printing] |
| Dimensions | Image and Plate 312 x 214 mm, Sheet 320 x 228 mm |
| Notes |
The highly ornate title page for the 'Brevis Narratio,' the second part of de Bry's monumental 'Grands Voyages,' an illustrated narrative of the experiences of Jacques Le Moyne as part of the failed Huguenot French attempt to establish a colony in what is now northern Florida. The title page takes the form of a highly decorative classical arch, upon which stand heroically exaggerated figures representing the indigenous, and now extinct, Timucua people of the region. At the very top of the arch stands Athore, the son of the chief of the Saturiwa, who, as well as acting as guide for the French explorer Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière, featured in a number of Le Moyne's drawings. He wears an elaborately embroidered, tasselled cloak, a feathered headdress with a long plume, and carries a feather-topped staff in his left hand. His body is covered in tattoos, and a pair of attendants wearing deerskin skirts, flank him, holding the tails of his cloak. Another pair of attendants in the spandrels cool him with long feathered fans. On plinths on either side of the arch are warriors, carrying a club and a long bow and quiver of arrows respectively. Under the smaller garlanded arch at the base of the scene, a procession can be seen, with a young woman held aloft in a canopied sedan chair. The full title, in the centre, reads: 'Indorum loridam provinciam inhabitantium eicones, primum ibidem ad vivum expressae a Iacobo Le Moyne cui cognomen De Morgues: addita ad singulas brevi earum declaratione. Nunc vero recens a Theodoro De Bry Leodiense in aes incisae, et evulgatae.' Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was a Flemish-born engraver and editor, who travelled Europe. De Bry fled from Liège in fear of the Spanish persecution of Protestants, lived in Strasbourg, travelled to Antwerp, then London, and finally settled in Frankfurt-am-Main, where he started a publishing business and printing workshop. de Bry's seminal work The Great and Small Voyages drew together contemporary narratives of exploration. Inspired and encourged by the English author Richard Hakluyt, de Bry completed the first part in 1590, and went on to publish five further parts before his death in 1598, when his wife and sons, Johann Theodor and Johann Israel, took over the task of completing the series. Immediately popular, drawing together a huge amount of material and in many cases providing the first readily available imagery of the new world and its inhabitants, this work and its illustrations provided the iconography and narrative of the peoples and customs of the Americas and the New World. The illustrations in the Voyages were in many cases based on existing images, but in many cases the images were altered to reflect European conventions, giving native peoples classical proportions and attributes. Jacques le Moyne de Morgues (c.1533-1588) was a French artist, cartographer, and botanist, best known for his depictions of First Nations life and culture in sixteenth century Florida. In 1562, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, a leading Huguenot and nephew of the influential royal courtier Anne de Montmorency, conceived a plan to explore the northern coast of Florida with a view to establishing a Huguenot colony in the region. The navigator Jean Ribaut was selected to lead the expedition, landing at what is now the mouth of St John's River in northern Florida, before establishing a settlement, Charlefort, at Port Royal. Ribaut returned to France, intending to bring more supplies and settlers to the fledgling colony, but in his absence, the religious conflict between the Catholic and Huguenot branches of the French royal houses had become a fully fledged persecution. Ribaut fled to England, where he was imprisoned. Two years later, after tensions between the different factions had cooled in France, de Coligny decided to make another attempt, dispatching a second expedition under the command of Rene de Laudonniere, who was joined by Jacques le Moyne. The latter was to record as many details - geographic, ethnographic, military, and mercantile - as possible. In the intervening time, Charlefort had largely dissolved under the pressure of famine and conflict with the indigenous peoples of the region, so the decision was made to found a new settlement on the St John's River, which the expedition named Carolina, after the French monarch, Charles IX, whose attempts at appeasement between the warring Catholic and Protestant factions of his kingdom were viewed positively by the Huguenots. Unfortunately, only a decade later, Charles' tacit assent to the will of his mother Catherine de'Medici resulted in an infamous massacre of Huguenot leaders at the wedding of his sister Margaret of Valois to Henry of Navarre. The Huguenot settlement at Carolina was, likewise, a victim of religious violence. The Spanish, not only viewing the Huguenots as heretics, were also concerned about the presence of another foreign imperial power in what they saw as their own territory, particularly so close to the routes of the crucial treasure galleons. Pedro Menendez de Aviles was granted an asiento to survey the entire coast north of La Florida, establish Spanish defences throughout the region, and, critically, to drive out any settlers that he found that were not subject to the Spanish crown. The result, after an initial skirmish, was the massacre of the entire male population of the garrison at Carolina, the pursuit and death of Ribaut, and the virtual removal of a French presence in the region. Laudonniere and le Moyne were among the few survivors, with the artist making his way to London, where he eventually found himself in the employ of Sir Walter Raleigh. Although le Moyne refused to sell his maps and illustrations, de Bry convinced his widow to part with them after the artist's death in 1588. Condition: Trimmed to border on right margin, as issued. Printers creases to left margin. Small chips to edges of sheet. Even time toning and dirt staining to sheet. Blank on verso. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £400.00 |
| Stock ID | 52636 |