Theodore De Bry’s America rediscovered
Two centuries before Humboldt, a Flemish engraver who never set foot in America invented its image—and changed exploration forever.
Between 1799 and 1804, two European travelers—Baron Alexander von Humboldt and French naturalist Aimé Bonpland—meticulously recorded every plant, landscape, inhabitant, and animal they encountered during a long odyssey through Spain and the Americas. In 1807, they published in Paris the 30 volumes of a monumental work: Le voyage aux régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent (Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent). But two hundred years before Humboldt and Bonpland, a Flemish publisher and engraver had attempted a similar feat. In 1590, Theodore de Bry released the first volume of America—a deeply personal, textual, and graphic interpretation of a continent that had just been discovered and was still largely unexplored. His narrative, brimming with novelistic flair, drew from a wild range of sources: travelogues and tales from adventurers like Thomas Harriot, as well as stories supplied by legendary corsairs such as Sir Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake.
De Bry never set foot in the New World. Yet his copper engravings offered a dazzling, never-before-seen vision of the American colossus—right before the (wide-open) eyes of European audiences. America was unveiled by the force of the printing press, with generous doses of imagination. Though registered in Frankfurt, De Bry crafted his engraving plates in London. The involvement of artists John White and Jacques Le Moyne was crucial in transferring the latter’s watercolors onto metal plates. The nine volumes delivered an imaginative chronicle of the clash between conquistadors, native populations, and the continent’s staggering natural diversity—from North Carolina to Florida, Central America, and the freezing Patagonia. For centuries, De Bry’s engravings fuelled the adventurous cravings of readers worldwide and were partially reprinted by numerous publishers across different countries.
Now, the renowned German publishing house TASCHEN offers a meticulously restored edition of De Bry’s America, reproducing all 218 engravings from the first nine volumes, along with their respective frontispieces and maps. Volumes I to VI were taken from hand-colored editions held in the collections of the John Hay and John Carter Brown Libraries at Brown University in Providence. Volumes VII to IX were reproduced from copies at the Staats- und Stadtbibliothek in Augsburg, Germany. In this monumental publishing endeavor, the editorial direction of two world-class experts has been key. Larry E. Tise, a historian from North Carolina, tracked down illustrated De Bry copies from 2004 to 2025 across major libraries in the United States and Europe. Meanwhile, Michiel van Groesen, a professor of Maritime History at Leiden University in the Netherlands, is a meticulous De Bry scholar who has published research works such as The Representations of the Overseas World in the De Bry Collection of Voyages (1590–1634) and An Ocean of Rumours: News and Information in the Atlantic World (2026). Rarely do exquisite knowledge and graphical excellence come together like this.
Theodore de Bry. The New World. 45th Ed.
Hardcover, 6.1 x 8.5 in., 2.39 lb, 480 pages
ISBN 978-3-8365-9853-8