1675 Ambrosius Nidelberg Description of the New World

First Swedish printed description of the Americas.

This rare volume is the first and only edition of Ambrosius Svenonis Nidelberg's 1675 description of the New World: it is the earliest substantial Swedish printed work pertaining to America. Sabin described it as 'one of the scarcest of the Swedish typographical productions of the seventeenth century on America.' The work is both geographical and ethnographic: it is the first Swedish description of North America's indigenous population. In particular, it is the first Swedish description of the English colonies in Bermuda and Virginia.

A Closer Look

This concise octavo - of 42 pages - briefly summarizes the discovery of America, then proceeds with more depth on the English colonies in Bermuda and Virginia. These sections trace back to John Smith's 1612 A Map of Virginia, and present the English territories as fruitful and habitable. Specifically, it describes the Susquehannock people, who were considered to be the allies of the short-lived Swedish colony situated on the Delaware River between 1638 and 1655. The description includes their modes of settlement and subsistence, religious custom, and some vocabulary (namely, the terms for their five seasons.)

Unsurprisingly, given the paucity of European settlements in the north, the bulk of the work discusses South America with sections addressing Terra Firma (New Granada), Venezuela, Guiana and the Amazon, Brazil, Paraguay and the province of the Rio de la Plata, the Tucuman province of Argentina, and the Strait of Le Maire (where, the author asserts, can be found giants whose height is 12 to 14 ells, or 23-27 feet). The book ends with a description of Chile, Peru, and Magellanica (Tierra Del Fuego). Regarding this last, the author describes it as a vast, wide land, greater than Europe and Africa combined: Nidelberg, apparently, had not learned of Drake's Voyage (1577 - 1580), which proved Tierra del Fuego to be significantly smaller.

Translator or Author?

The book was published anonymously, but it is agreed that it is the work of Swedish jurist and scholar Ambrosius Svenonis Nidelberg, who produced Swedish editions of significant travel works on behalf of his patron, Count Per Brahe the Younger, to be published by the Count's private press. Bibliographers have typically assumed that this book was simply Nidelberg's translation of the 1639-1645 travelogue of Michael Hemmersam (???? - 1663), a German craftsman in the service of the Dutch East India Company. Nidelberg's work is actually a more complicated, composite work, drawing not only on Hemmersam, but also on Johannes de Laet's 1630 description of the West Indies and John Smith's report on Virginia and Bermuda. And even so, it is not a rote translation: for example, the section pertaining to Virginia's fauna notes that wild pigs found there were smaller than Tatar and Muscovite pigs. Nidelberg's source, De Laet who in turn paraphrased Captain John Smith, compared not pigs, but American and Muscovite bears. Ljustrov, in addressing the puzzling change, proposed that Nidelberg refused to associate the bear - an iconographic national symbol of Sweden -  with Muscovy (Russia), instead associating Sweden's frequent military foe and constant threat from the east with the wild boar. The presence of such editorializing, along with the effort of combining and condensing an array of sources into one small work, suggests that Nidelberg's role went further than simple translation.

Publication History and Census

This book was published in 1675 by Johan Kankel, printer for the private press of Count Per Brahe the Younger, in Wisingsborg, Sweden. This tiny press only produced 28 works, all in very small editions, all of which are now rare. We see 15 examples of the book listed in OCLC, and it is scarce on the market.

Cartographer

Ambrosius Svenonis Nidelberg (c. 1620 - 1689) was a Swedish scholar, judge, and philosopher. His father was the treasurer of the County of Visingsborg; the family served Count Per Brahe, the Chancellor of the Academy of Turku; when Nidelberg was in due course enrolled at the Academy in 1658, he received a six year stipend. He studied, probably for law, in Jena in 1660. He earned his baccalaureate in philosophy in 1664. He became an assistant judge in 1684; he would also continue his family's service to Count Brahe, notably as a translator. His surviving work consists mostly of translations and syntheses of important European travel accounts, including Martini's book on China and Tartary and Schouten's description of Siam. These are notable for being the earliest works in the Swedish language pertaining to their respective subjects.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Small quarto in 20th century yellow boards. Paper label on spine. Text lightly browned. Else excellent.

References

OCLC 14290522. Sabin, J., A dictionary of books relating to America: from its discovery to the present time, 38244. Ljustrov, M.Yu., 'Virginian Bears and Muscovite Boars: Russian Theme in the Swedish ‘Short Story on the West Indies, or America’.' Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 22.