[Sca-cooks] Girolamo Benzoni was Description of New World Foods 1591

[Johnna Holloway]

It's quite possible that material might have been added. The question is
who added it, the source, and when was it added. The author died circa  
1570, so
he was long dead by the time the German edition appeared.

If you are serious about the work, Worldcat can provide a list of
biographies, histories, and bibliographies that might provide you with
a more complete picture of the book, all its editions, and the author.
The Catholic Encyclopedia noted
"... the book has small merit, except in as far as it presents and  
describes facts witnessed by the author. Even these are not always  
faithfully reported. It might be called a controversial document  
because of its violent partiality and hostility. It does not notice  
mitigating circumstances, and ignores what is good when it does not  
suit the author. Benzoni writes sometimes like a disappointed trader,  
and always as a man of limited education and very narrow views. His  
"Historia del Mondo Nuovo" (Venice, 1565) was reprinted in 1572, and  
translated into French by Eustace Vignon, 1579. Aside from the  
annotations which are often trivial and as partial as the book itself,  
the English translation, "History of the New World by Girolamo  
Benzoni" (London, 1857), by the Hakluyt Society, is certainly the best."

Johnnae

On Feb 15, 2011, at 5:39 PM, wheezul at canby.com wrote:
> Unless I am having a total translator fail, the German edition and the
> Haklyt edition may not be in accord.  I should probably look at the
> Italian version.
> Thank you again for your library magic.
>
> Katherine