MANUEL I, King of Portugal (1469-1521). Epistola potentissimi ac invictissimi Emanuelis Regis Portugaliae & Algarbiorum, &c. De Victoriis habitis in India, et Malacha, ad Leonem X, Pont. Maximum. Rome: Giacomo Mazzocchi, 9 August 1513.

First edition of the letter from the King of Portugal to Pope Leo X reporting on the conquest of Malacca, the most crucial port in the trade between India and China. This victory marked the furthest-flung western European military engagement to date.

Afonso de Albuquerque was on his second expedition to the East. He had already seized Goa in 1510, which would become the principal base of Portuguese operations in Asia. From Goa, he advanced to Malacca in Malaya, a hub for the Muslim commercial network. As noted by Penrose, Malacca was “a settlement of prime importance in the Moslem commercial system, since it was the port not only for China but for the whole of the East Indies as well. Most of the spices so greatly in demand in Europe were transshipped there.” King Manuel reports on this success in order to maintain papal favor for a Portuguese monopoly on the spice trade in the East Indies. On the date of the letter, 6 June 1513, Leo X had been pope for only a few months. This letter has been characterized as the symbolic laying of the Indies at the feet of the Pope.

There were two contemporary Latin Roman editions of this letter, this present one and an undated version printed by Marcellus Silber. There were also one or two undated editions in Italian without imprints. The present edition is generally considered the first. EDIT 16 CNCE 30308; Grenville, p.225.

Quarto (181 x 139mm). Six leaves. Woodcut arms of Portugal on the title. Full red morocco, gilt spine, turn-ins and board edges, all edges gilt, by Lortic (light wear to spine). Provenance: early manuscript pagination from a larger volume – José Pinto Leite, 2nd Count of Penha Longa, 1871–1956 (supralibros) – with Maggs Bros., A Royal Catalogue issued to Commemorate the Silver Jubilee of H.M. King George V, 1935, catalogue 606, no. 581 – José Mindlin, 1914–2010 (bookplate).