Medina (Pedro de). L'art de naviguer, 2nd French edition, Lyon, 1569

Medina (Pedro de). L'art de naviguer de M. Pierre de Medine, Espagnol. Contenant toutes les reigles, secrets, & enseignemens necessaires a la bonne navigation, traduict de castillan en françois, avec augmentations et illustration de plusieurs figures et annotations, par Nicolas de Nicolai, Lyon: Guillaume Rouille, 1569, numerous woodcut illustrations throughout including full-page illustration of the celestial spheres, world map (after Appian) with cherubic windheads to C3 verso, without the folding map frontispiece of the North Atlantic and 4 text-leaves (*4, K4, F1, F4), title-page laid down and with old ink inscriptions and marginal repairs, modern limp vellum, 4to (24.1 x 17 cm), housed in modern custom-made green cloth book box (Quantity: 1) Polak 6581; Sabin 47345; Brunet III, 1573. Medina's work is seen as the first practical treatise on navigation. First printed in Spanish in Vallodid, all early editions are rare, this being the second edition in French. A copy of the first French edition of 1554 was one of three books on navigation carried by Drake during his circumnavigation of the world in 1577-80. A cleric and librarian to the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, Medina had first-hand knowledge of the New World, having travelled there with Hernan Cortes. He was asked to prepare charts and other navigational aides by Emperor Charles V, and after the first publication of the work was named Cosmografo de honor.