Royal MS 18 B XXVIII

'A BRIEF SOMME of Geographia, which dothe treat o all partes and provinces of the worlde and specially of countreis lately dyscovered by your maiestie and by themperour Charles of that name the vth and of the kynges of Portugall and Spayne' (so described in the introductory letter to Henry VIII), by Roger Barlo. He prefixes a 'lytle declaration of the sphere', com. prising rules and tables for observation of the sun and pole-star, and then proceeds to describe 'the costes of the landes with ther derotas and altitudes', with particulars of the people and commodities, 'wherof parte I haue travailed and sene my self by experiens, and those parties which I haue not seene I haue had knolege of them by suche credible persones', &c. Beginning at Gibraltar he takes first the Atlantic coast of Europe including the British Isles, then the Mediterranean, and returning to the straits continues round the S. of Africa to the Red Sea and thence to India. After the description of Hindu customs he starts afresh from Ferro in the Canaries to Cape S. Agostinho in S. America and down the E. coast to the Straits of Magellan. Then starting again from Cape S. Agostinho northwards to Paria, he proceeds onwards, after describing the West Indian Islands, to Cape Gracias-a- Dios in Central America, whereon follows a short account of the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama. He then gives a brief account of what is known of the land (N. America) lying NW. from Ferro, 'which is called the new founde lande, which was fyrst discouered by marchants of Brystowe, where now the Bretons do trat (sc. trade) thider eueric yere a fyshing', urging that this quarter of the globe is the only one left for English enterprise, and though not yet found rich in gold, spices, or precious stones, may prove so further to the south, and especially advocating the advantages of a polar route to the Pacific. The portions wherein the author speaks of his own experience are in connexion with the Canaries (f. 55 b) and the other regions (ff. 82 b-90) visited in a voyage to the River Solys (Rio-de-la-Plata) and 300 leagues up the Parana River. This voyage was made by Roger Barlow and Henry Latimer for. Robert Thorne in company with Sebastian Cabot in 1526-1527 (see Dict. Nat. Biogr. s. n. Thorne), and the notes on a Northern passage at the end are practically a repetition of what Thorne had advocated to the King in 1527 (Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, 1903 ed., ii, pp. 161-163). Barlow is also mentioned in the calendar of Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII, iv, pt. ii, no. 2814. 5, and v, no. 838. 33. Much of the account of India is taken from the Voyages of Ludovico di Varthema (al. Bartema, al. Vartomannus), a Bolognese, first printed in Italian, 1510, English transl. by R. Eden, 1576 (repr. Aungervyle Soc., 1884) and for Hakluyt Soc., 1863. The King's style shows that the present work was written between 1535 and 1543. Preface beg. 'One of the thinges most naturally desired'; treatise, 'This spere is a bodie round'.

Paper; ff. 101. Folio. 113/4 in. x 8 in. A. D. 1535-1543. By a binder's mistake the vellum label 'Geographia Barlow' belonging to this MS.has been attached to 18 B. XXIX. Bound with 18 B. XXIX, XXX. Old Royal press-mark 'no. 1122'; not in the old catalogues.