ROBERTSON, William. The History of America.

London: Printed for W. Strahan; T. Cadell, in the Strand; and J. Balfour, at Edinburgh, 1778.

Edition: Second Edition (published the year following the 1777 first edition).

Format & Extent: 2 volumes, large quarto (12"x9.5"). Complete with half-titles, 4 folding engraved maps by Thomas Kitchin, and 1 folding engraved plate illustrating Mexican/Aztec pictographic writing.

A wide-margined, handsomely bound set in period-style modern half calf over marbled boards. Spines feature raised bands accented with gilt tooling, contrasting red morocco lettering pieces in the second compartments, oval volume roundels in the fourth, and the publication date stamped in gilt at the foot. Page edges are entirely untrimmed, preserving maximum original margins and deckled page edges.

Internally, the leaves are crisp and clean with only light, intermittent spots of foxing. The folding maps and plates are present, intact, and well-impressed:

Volume I

Folding map: South America

Folding map: The Gulf of Mexico and the Islands and Countries Adjacent

Volume II:

Folding map: Mexico, or New Spain in which the Motions of Cortes may be Traced

Folding map: Countries on the South Sea from Panama to Guayaquil

Folding plate: Engraved folding plate representing Mexican (Aztec) hieroglyphic/chronological paintings.

William Robertson (1721–1793), Principal of the University of Edinburgh and Historiographer Royal for Scotland, was one of the foremost historians of the Scottish Enlightenment alongside David Hume and Edward Gibbon.

The History of America remains Robertson's most celebrated and influential work. Covering the discovery of the New World and the Spanish conquests of Mexico and Peru, the work is renowned for its critical use of primary Spanish sources, many obtained through diplomatic channels directly from Madrid and Simancas. It represents one of the earliest balanced and systematic European accounts of Mesoamerican civilizations, pre-Columbian culture, and colonial governance in the Americas.

(References: Sabin 71973; Howes R-358; Hill 1458)