Pietro Bembo's L'Histoire du Nouveau Monde

摘要

THE third volume of Giovanni Battista Ramusio's Delle Navigationi et Viaggi was firstpublished in Venice by Giunti in 1556.' It included an account of the first Spanish descentot the River Amazon made during 1542. This account was written by Gonzalo Hernandezde Oviedo y Valdes (1478-1557), and sent as a letter to Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), the distinguished humanist, who from 1530 until his death was the official historianas well as the librarian of the Venetian Republic. It was Bembo, a friend of Ramusio, whoundertook to have translated into Italian what appears to be this very letter presumablyso that Ramusio could include it in his projected volume. However, while Ramusio'sthird volume includes such primary material as Oviedo's letter, it contains also extensiveextracts from histories.