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Joseph GUMILLA

Histoire naturelle, civile et géographique de l'Orénoque, et des principales rivières qui s'y jettent

Chez Desaint et Saillant & chez Jean Mossy, à Avignon à Marseille 1758, in-12 (9,5x16,5cm), xviij (8) 388pp. (4) et (2) 334pp. (4) et (2) 332pp. (4), 3 volumes reliés.

Histoire naturelle, civile et géographique de l'Orénoque, et des principales rivières qui s'y jettent
The first edition in French, translated by Marc-Antoine Eidous, with a large map of "la Province et des Missions de la Compagnie de Jésus du nouveau royaume de Grenade [the Province and Missions of the Society of Jesus in the New Kingdom of Grenada" and two folding plates. The first Spanish edition, El Orinoco ilustrado, was published in Madrid in 1741.
Contemporary brown marbled calf. Spine with gilt compartments and fleurons as well as toffee-colored and red title labels, blindruled fillet frame to covers, all edges marbled.
A small wormtrack to foot of volume two, some miniscule rubbing to covers of volume one, joints of volume two slightly cracked, otherwise a very good and fresh copy.
Joseph Gumilla (1686-1750) was a Spanish Jesuit priest and missionary in Columbia and Venezuela. He left Spain in 1705 for New Grenada (now Columbia). From 1715 on for thirty five years, he lived in the Orinoco plain, now a part of Venezuela. Gumilla took the opportunity to learn the languages of the local indigenous peoples and build up his knowledge of astronomy and natural history. On his return to Madrid, he wrote his Natural History based on these observations.
The work is interested in both the various indigenous tribes around the Orinoco (Othomacos, Guamos, Saliva), their physical appearance, languages, customs, rituals and beliefs. A good deal of the work is also dedicated to fauna (caimans, snakes, insects, fish, turtles, and so on).
These anthropological and naturalist observations are nonetheless informed by the religious tone of the missionary. Weiss, in the supplement to the Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne notes: "Having noticed customs among the Indians similar to those of the Israelites, he concluded that the two people were of common origin, and that the Indians were the descendants of Shem, the cursed son of Noah, and thus that it was rightful for the Spanish to have reduced them to slavery...The Histoire de l'Orénoque, despite its above-mentioned faults, is a very interesting work and is a very pleasant read."
A very good copy.

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