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VESPUCCI REPRINTS, TEXTS AND STUDIES
V

THE MUNDUS NOVUS
IN TRANSLATION

VESPUCCI REPRINTS, TEXTS AND STUDIES
The Cyrus H. McCormick Publication Fund
OF THE Princeton University Library

The Vespucci reprints, texts and studies had their origin in the
gift to the Princeton University Library by Mr. Cyrus H. McCor
mick '79, of Chicago, of eight tracts relating to Vespucci, purchased
from the Hoe library.
Mr. McCormick's attention was called to the fact that the Ves
pucci problem is one useful to set for university students who are
being trained for research in American History, and that for this
purpose the main need is for reliable copies of actual documents,
originals being scarce and facsimiles not generally accessible. On
this representation the Library administration was authorized to
publish any of his gifts in facsimile and to add to them such
other basic documents as might be useful and obtainable, form
ing a convenient uniform series of documents for teaching or re
search in unpretentious form for practical use.
The following^ numbers have been published or are in press :
2, The Soderini letter, 1504; facsimile.
3. The Soderini letter, Florence manuscript; facsimile.
4. The Soderini letter. Critical translation with introduction by
Professor G. T. Northup of University of Toronto.
S. The Mundus Novus or Medici letter translated by Professor
G. T. Northup.
6. The Paesi novamente retrovati 1508; facsimile.
7. The Sensujrt le nouveau monde, 1515 ; facsimile.
Provision has also been made for publication at an early date of
other items as follows :
The Mundus Novus or Medici letter, fasimiles of all editions of
the Latin text which can be had for reproduction, together with a
critical bibliographical study of these editions by George Parker
Winship, Librarian of the Widener Library of Harvard University
The Von der new gefunden Region.
The Latin version of the Soderini letter, etc.

C 14.^0

MUNDUS NOVUS

LETTER TO LORENZO PIETRO DI MEDICI

TRANSLATED BY
GEORGE TYLER NORTHUP

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON
LONDON : HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1916

Published November, 1916

\ \

^LBERICUS VeSPUCIUS OFFERS HIS BEST COMPLIMENTS
' " , TO Lorenzo Pietro di Medici.
On a former occasion I wrote to you at some length
concerning my return from those new regions which we
\^ found and explored with the fleet, at the cost, and by the
command of this Most Serene King of Portugal. And
these we may rightly call a new world. Because our an
cestors had no knowledge of them, and it will be a matter
wholly new to all those who hear about them. For this
transcends the view held by our ancients, inasmuch as
most of them hold that there is no continent to the south
beyond the equator, but only the sea which they named the
Atlantic; and if some of them did aver that a continent
there was, they denied with abundant argument that it
was a habitable land. But that this their opinion is false
and utterly opposed to the truth, this my last voyage
has made manifest; for in those southern parts I have
fotmd a continent more densely peopled and abounding
in animals than our Europe or Asia or Africa, and, in
addition, a climate milder and more delightful than in
any other region known to us, as you shall learn in the
following account wherein we shall set succinctly down
only capital matters and the things more worthy of com
ment and memory seen or heard by me in this new world,
as w^ill appear below.
On the fourteenth of the month of May, one thousand
five hundred and one we set sail from Lisbon under fair
sailing conditions, in compliance with the commands of
the aforementioned king, with these ships for the purpose
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Page 1

of seeking new regions toward the south ; and for twenty
months we continuously pursued this southern course.
The route of this voyage is as follows : Our course was
set for the Fortunate Isles, once so called, but which are
now termed the Grand Canary Islands; these are in the
third climate and on the border of the inhabited west.
Thence by sea we skirted the whole African coast and
part of Ethiopia as far as the Ethiopic Promontory, so
called by Ptolemy, which we now call Cape Verde and the
Ethiopians Beseghice. And that region, Mandingha, lies
within the torrid zone fourteen degrees north of the
equator; it is inhabited by tribes and nations of blacks.
Having there recovered our strength and taken on all
that our voyage required, we weighed anchor and made
sail. And directing our course over the vast ocean toward
the Antarctic we for a time bent westward, owing to the
wind called Vulturnus; and from the day when we set
sail from the said promontory we cruised for the space
of two months and three days before any land appeared
to us. But what we suffered on that vast expanse of sea,
what perils of shipwreck, what discomforts of the body
we endured, with what anxiety of mind we toiled, this
I leave to the judgment of those who out of rich exper
ience have well learned what it is to seek the uncertain
and to attempt discoveries even though ignorant. And
that in a word I may briefly narrate all, you must know
that of the sixty-seven days of our sailing we had fortv-
four of constant rain, thunder and lightning — so dark
that never did we see sun by day or fair sky by night.
By reason of this such fear invaded us that we soon
abandoned almost all hope of life. But during these
tempests of sea and sky, so numerous and so violent, the
Most High was pleased to display before us a continent,
new lands, and an unknown world. At sight of these
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Page 2

things we were filled with as much joy as anyone can
imagine usually falls to the lot of those who have gained
refuge from varied calamity and hostile fortune. It was
on the seventh day of August, one thousand five hundred
and one that we anchored off the shores of those parts,
thanking our God with formal ceremonial and with the
celebration of a choral mass. We knew that land to be
a continent and not an island both because it stretches
forth in the form of a very long and unbending coast, and
because it is replete with infinite inhabitants. For in it
we found innumerable tribes and peoples and species of
all manner of wild beasts which are found in our lands
and many others never seen by us concerning which it
would take long to tell in detail. God's mercy shone
upon us much when we landed at that spot, for there had
come a shortage of fire-wood and water, and in a few
days we might have ended our lives at sea. To Him be
honor, glory, and thanksgiving.
We adopted the plan of following the coast of this
continent toward the east and never losing sight of it.
We sailed along until at length we reached a bend where
the shore made a turn to the south ; and from that point
where we first touched land to that corner it was about
three hundred leagues, in which sailing distance we
frequently landed and had friendly relations with those
people, as you will hear below. I had forgotten to write
you that from the promontory of Cape Verde to the
nearest part of that continent is about seven hundred
leagues, although I should estimate that we sailed more
than eighteen hundred, partly through ignorance of the
route and the ship-master's want of knowledge, partly
owing to tempests and winds which kept us from the
proper course and compelled us to put about frequently.
Because, if my companions had not heeded me, who had
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Page 3

knowledge of cosmography, there would have been no
ship-master, nay not the leader of our expedition himself,
who would have known where we were within five hun
dred leagues. For we were wandering and uncertain in
our course, and only the instruments for taking the alti
tudes of the heavenly bodies showed us our true course
precisely; and these were the quadrant and the astrolabe,
which all men have come to know. For this reason they
subsequently made me the object of great honor; for I
showed them that though a man without practical exper
ience, yet through the teaching of the marine chart for
navigators I was more skilled than all the ship-masters
of the whole world. For these have no knowledge except
of those waters to which they have often sailed. Now,
where the said corner of land showed us a southern trend
of the coast we agreed to sail beyond it and inquire what
there might be in those parts. So we sailed along the
coast about six hundred leagues, and often landed and
mingled and associated with the natives of those regions,
and by them we were received in brotherly fashion ; and
we would dwell with them too, for fifteen or twenty days
continuously, maintaining amicable and hospitable rela
tions, as you shall learn below. Part of this new conti
nent lies in the torrid zone beyond the equator toward
the Antarctic pole, for it begins eight degrees beyond the
equator. We sailed along this coast until we passed the
/ropic of Capricorn and found the Antarctic pole fifty
/degrees higher than that horizon. We advanced to
\within seventeen and a half degrees of the Antarctic
circle, and what I there have seen and learned concerning
the nature of those races, their manners, their tractability
and the fertility of the soil, the salubrity of the climate,
the position of the hea^'enly bodies in the sky, and espe
cially concerning the fixed stars of the eighth sphere.
The Mundus Novus Translation
Page 4

never seen or studied by our ancestors, these things I
shall relate in order.
First then as to the people. We found in those parts
such a multitude of people as nobody could enumerate
(as we read tn the Apocalypse), a race I say gentle and
amenable. All of both sexes go about naked, covering
no part of their bodies; and just as they spring from
their mothers' wombs so they go until death. They have
indeed large square-built bodies, well formed and pro
portioned, and in color verging upon reddish. This I
think has come to them, because, going about naked,
they are colored by the sun. They have, too, hair plenti
ful and black. In their gait and when playing their
games they are agile and dignified. They are comely,
too, of countenance which they nevertheless themselves
destroy; for they bore their cheeks, lips, noses and ears.
Xor think those holes small or that they have one only.
For some I have seen having in a single face seven bor
ings any one of which was capable of holding a plum.
They stop up these holes of theirs with blue stones, bits of
marble, very beautiful cr\'stals of alabaster, ver\' white
bones, and other things artificially prepared according
to their customs. But if you could see a thing so un
wonted and monstrous, that is to say a man having in
his cheeks and lips alone seven stones some of which are
a span and a half in length, you would not be w^ithout
wonder. For I frequently observed and discovered that
seven such stones weighed sixteen ounces, aside from the
fact that in their ears, each perforated with three holes,
they have other stones dangling on rings; and this usage
applies to the men alone. For women do not bore their
faces, but their ears only. They have another custom, >
very shameful and beyond all human belief. For their
women, being ver\- lustful, cause the private parts of;
The Mundcs Novus Translation
Fagb 5

their husbands to swell up to such a huge size that they
appear deformed and disgusting; and this is accomplished
by a certain device of theirs, the biting of certain poison
ous animals. And in consequence of this many lose their
organs which break through lack of attention, and they
remain eunuchs. They have no cloth either of wool,
linen or cotton, since they need it not; neither do they
have goods of their own, but all things are held in com
mon. They live together without king, without govern
ment, and each is his own master. They marry as many
wives as they please; and son cohabits with mother,
brother with sister, male cousin with female, and any
man with the first woman he meets. They dissolve their
marriages as often as they please, and observe no sort of
law with respect to them. Beyond the fact that they
have no church, no religion and are not idolaters, what
more can I say ? They live according to nature, and may
be called Epicureans rather than Stoics. There are no
merchants among their number, nor is there barter. The
nations wage war upon one another without art or order.
The elders by means of certain harangues of theirs bend
the youths to their will and inflame them to wars in which
they cruelly kill one another, and those whom they bring
home captives from war they preserve, not to spare their
lives, but that they may be slain for food; for they eat
one another, the victors the vanquished, and among other
kinds of meat human flesh is a common article of diet
with them. Nay be the more assured of this fact because
the father has already been seen to eat children and
wife, and I knew a man whom I also spoke to who was
reputed to have eaten more than three hundred human
bodies. And I likewise remained twenty-seven days in a
certain city where I saw salted human flesh suspended
from beams between the houses, just as with us it is the

The Mundus Novus Translation
Page 6

custom to hang bacon and pork. I say further: they
themselves wonder why we do not eat our enemies and
do not use as food their flesh which they say is most
savory. Their weapons are bows and arrows, and when
they advance to war they cover no part of their bodies
for the sake of protection, so like beasts are they in this
matter. We endeavored to the extent of our power to
dissuade them and persuade them to desist from these
depraved customs, and they did promise us that they
would leave off. The women as I have said go about
naked and are very libidinous ; yet they have bodies which
are tolerably beautiful and cleanly. Nor are they so un
sightly as one perchance might imagine; for, inasmuch
as they are plump, their ugliness is the less apparent,
which indeed is for the most part concealed by the excel
lence of their bodily structure. It was to us a matter of
astonishment that none was to be seen among them who
had a flabby breast, and those who had borne children
were not to be distinguished from virgins by the shape
and shrinking of the womb; and in the other parts of
the body similar things were seen of which in the interest
of modesty I make no mention. When they had the op
portunity of copulating with Christians, urged by exces
sive lust, they defiled and prostituted themselves. They
live one hundred and fifty years, and rarely fall ill, and
if they do fall victims to any disease, they cure them
selves with certain roots and herbs. These are the most
noteworthy things I know about them. The climate there
was very temperate and good, and as I was able to learn
from their accounts, there was never there any pest or
epidemic caused by corruption of the air ; and unless they
die a violent death they live long. This I take to be be
cause the south winds are ever blowing there, and espe
cially that which we call Eurus, which is the same to

The Mundus Novus Translation
Page 7

them as the Aquilo is to us. They are zealous in the art
of fishing, and that sea is replete and abounding in every
kind of fish. They are not hunters. This I deem to be
because there are there many sorts of wild animals, and
especially lions and bears and innumerable serpents and
other horrid and ugly beasts, and also because forests
and trees of huge size there extend far and wide; and
they dare not, naked and without covering and arms,
expose themselves to such hazards.
The land in those parts is very fertile and pleasing,
abounding in numerous hills and mountains, boundless
valleys and mighty rivers, watered by refreshing springs,
and filled with broad, dense jmd wellnigh impenetrable
forests full of every sort of wild animal. Trees grow
to immense size without cultivation. Many of these yield
fruits delectable to the taste and beneficial to the human
body; some indeed do not, and no fruits there are like
those of ours. Innumerable species of herbs and roots
grow there too, of which they make bread and excellent
food. They have, too, many seeds altogether unlike these
of ours. They have there no metals of any description
except gold, of which those regions have a great plenty,
although to be sure we have brought none thence on this
our first voyage. This the natives called to our attention.
who averred that in the districts remote from the coast
there is a great abundance of gold, and by them it is in
no respect esteemed or valued. They are rich in pearls as
I wrote you before. If I were to seek to recount in
detail what things are there and to write concerning the
numerous species of animals and the great number of
them, it would be a matter all too prolix and vast. And
I truly believe that our Pliny did not touch upon a
thousandth part of the species of parrots and other birds
and the animals, too, which exist in those same regions
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Page 8

so diverse as to form and color; because Policletus, the
master of painting in all its perfection would have fallen
short in depicting them. There all trees are fragrant and
they emit each and all gum, oil, or some sort of sap. If
the properties of these were known to us, I doubt not
but that they would be salutary to the human body. And
surely if the terrestrial paradise be in any part of this
earth, I esteem that it is not far distant from those parts.
Its situation, as I have related, lies toward the south in
such a temperate climate that icy winters and fiery sum
mers alike are never there experienced.
The sky and atmosphere are serene during the greater
part of the year, and devoid of thick vapors the rains
there fall finely, last three or four hours, and vanish like
a mist. The sky is adorned with most beautiful constel
lations and forms among which I noted about twenty
stars as bright as we ever saw Venus or Jupiter. I have
considered the movements and orbits of these, I have
measured their circumferences and diameters by geo
metric method, and I ascertained that they are of greater
magnitude, I saw in that sky three Canopi, two indeed
bright, the third dim. The Antarctic pole is not figured
with a Great and a Little Bear as this Arctic pole of ours
is seen to be, nor is any bright star to be seen near it, and
of those which move around it with the shortest circuit
there are three which have the form of an orthogonous
triangle, the half circumference, the diameter, has nine
and a half degrees. Rising with these to the left is seen
a white Canopus of extraordinary size which when they
reach mid-heaven have this form :

The Mundus Novus Translation
Page 9

s s
s s s s
s s s s s s
s s s s

canopus. *

After these come two others, the half circumference
of which, the diameter, has twelve and a half degrees;
and with them is seen another white Canopus. There
follow upon these six other most beautiful stars and
brightest among all the others of the eighth sphere, which
in the upper firmament have a half circumference, a
diameter, of thirty-two degrees. With them revolves a
black Canopus of huge size. They are seen in the Milky
Way and have a form like this when observed on the
meridian line :

s s
s s s s s
s s s s s s
s s s
I observed many other very beautiful stars, the move
ments of which I have diligently noted down and have
described beautifully with diagrams in a certain little
book of mine treating of this my voyage. But at present
this Most Serene King has it, which I hope he will restore
to me. In that hemisphere I saw things incompatible with
the opinions of philosophers. A white rainbow was twice
seen about midnight, not only by me but by all the sailors.
The Mundus Novus Translation
Page 10

Likewise we have frequently seen the new moon on that
day when it was in conjunction with the sun. Every
night in that part of the sky innumerable vapors and
glowing meteors fly about, I said a little while ago
respecting that hemisphere that it really cannot properly
be spoken of as a complete hemisphere comparing it to
ours, yet since it approaches such a form, such may we
be permitted to call it.
Therefore, as I have said from Lisbon whence we
started, which is thirty-nine and a half degrees distant
from the equator, we sailed beyond the equator through
fifty degrees, which added together make about ninety
degrees, which total inasmuch as it makes the fourth part
of a great circle according to the true system of measure
ment transmitted to us by our ancients, it is evident that
we sailed over a fourth part of the world. And by this
calculation we who live in Lisbon, thirty-nine and a half
degrees north latitude this side of the equator, are with
respect to those fifty degrees beyond the same line, south
latitude, at an angle of five degrees on a transverse line.
And that you may the more clearly understand : A per
pendicular line drawn, while we stand upright, from a
point in the sky overhead, our zenith, hangs over our
head ; it comes down upon their side or ribs. Thus comes
about that we are on an upright line, but they on a line
drawn sidewise. A kind of orthogonal triangle is thus
formed, the position of whose upright line we occupy,
but they the base ; and the hypothenuse is drawn from our
zenith to theirs, as is seen in the diagram. And these
things I have mentioned are sufficient as regards
cosmography.

The Mundus Novus Translation
Pace 11

our zenith

These have been the more noteworthy things which I
have seen in this my last voyage which I call my third
chapter. For two other chapters consisted of two other
voyages which I made to the west by command of the
most Serene King of the Spains, during which I noted
down the marvellous works wrought by that sublime
creator of all things, our God, I kept a diary of note
worthy things that if sometime I am granted leisure I
may bring together th|fese singular and wonderful things
and write a book of geo'graphy or cosmography, that my
memory may live with posterity and that the immense
work of almighty God, partly unknown to the ancients,
but known to us, may be understood. Accordingly I
pray the most merciful God to prolong the days of my
life that with His good favor and the salvation of my
soul I may carry out in the best possible manner this
my will. The accounts of the other two journeys I am
preserving in my cabinet and when this Most Serene
King restores to me the third, I shall endeavor to regain
my country and repose. There I shall be able to consult
with experts and to receive from friends the aid and
comfort necessary for the completion of this work.
Of you I crave pardon for not having transmitted to
you this my last voyage, or rather my last chapter, as
I had promised you in my last letter. You have learned

The Mundus Novus Translation
Page 12

the reason when I tell you that I have not yet obtained
the principal version from this Most Serene King.
I am still privately considering the making of a fourth
journey, and of this I am treating; and already I
have been promised two ships with their equipment, that
I may apply myself to the discovery of new regions to
the south along the eastern side following the wind-route
called Africus. In which journey I think to perform
many things to the glory of God, the advantage of this
kingdom, and the honor of my old age; and I await
nothing but the consent of this Most Serene King. God
grant what is for the best. You shall learn what comes
of it.
Jocundus, the translator, is turning this epistle from
the Italian into the Latin tongue, that Latinists may
know how many wonderful things are daily being dis
covered, and that the audacity of those who seek to
scrutinize heaven and sovereignty and to know more
than it is licit to know may be held in check. Inasmuch
as ever since that remote time when the world began the
vastness of the earth and what therein is contained has
been unknown.
Master John Otmar, Vienna, printer, August, 1504,

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Page 13