Noticias Americanas: Entretenimientos Phisicos-Historicos, sobre La América Meridional, y la Serptentianal Oriental: Comparación General de los Territorios, Climas y Producciones en las tres Especies Vegetal, Animal y Mineral.…

Madrid: Francisco Manuel de Mena, 1772. First edition. Ornamental initials and head- and tailpieces. [xxiv], 407, [1], [2, errata leaf] pp. 1 vols. Small 4to. Contemporary stained calf, gilt spine with raised bands, red morocco spine label, edges and turn-ins gilt, marbled endpapers. Binding rubbed and worn, covers and endpapers detached. Laid into a half red morocco slipcase and chemise. First edition. Ornamental initials and head- and tailpieces. [xxiv], 407, [1], [2, errata leaf] pp. 1 vols. Small 4to. Ulloa (1716-1795) was one of the most distinguished and enlightened Spanish savants of his time, an explorer, geographer, navigator, and scientist whose brilliant early career won him election to the Royal Society of London in 1745 during time of war with England. “Ulloa has left a name deservedly honored in his country. Spain owes to him the creation of the first cabinet of natural history, and the first laboratory of metallurgy it possessed; the conception of the canal of Old Castile, for navigation and irrigation…; the knowledge of platina and its properties; of electricity and artificial magnetism. It is he who perfected the art of engraving and printing in Spain; who directed the Spanish geographers of the time in the composition of a correct map of the Peninsula…” (Charles Gayarre, Louisiana its History as a French Colony). After Louisiana was ceded to Spain in 1762, it was Ulloa who was appointed to be the first Spanish governor of the province, in 1766; he served druing troubled times unitl 1768 when he was expelled. In this book, Ulloa reviews the soil, climate, vegetable, animal and mineral productions of vast regions in both South and North America, with essays on marine petrifactions, native Americans, their manners, customs, antiquities, languages, probable origins, etc., etc. John Carter Brown 1844; Sabin 97687; Field 1584; Palau XXIV, 343417