LOPES, Duarte; PIGAFETTA, Filippo.- RELATIONE | DEL REAME DI CONGO | ET DELLE | CIRCONVICINE CONTRADE | Tratta dalli Scritti & ragionamenti | di Odoardo | Lopez Portoghese. | PER FILIPPO PIGAFETTA | Con disegni uari di Geografia di | piante, d’habiti, d’animali, & altro...- In Roma: Apresso Bartolomeo Grassi, s.d. [1591].- [8], 82, [1, 1 br.] p.: 8 gravuras, 2 mapas desdobr. [em falta]; 20 cm.- E. Original edition of the first description of the Kingdom of Congo, by the Portuguese explorer and merchant Duarte Lopes (fl. 1578), born in Benavente. The author, who left Lisbon for Africa in 1578, would occupy an influential position with the Catholic King of Congo, D. Álvaro, who commissioned him to represent him with Philip II of Spain and Pope Sixtus V. Upon his arrival in Rome, Duarte Lopes met the Italian humanist and traveler Filippo Pigafetta (1533-1604) to whom he dictated his narrative, which he published in the present edition in 1591. The work achieved great success, having been translated into several languages and integrated in the first part of Theodore de Bry's "Petits Voyages", published in 1597 (in German) and in 1598 (in Latin). The edition opens with a copperplate printed architectural frontispiece (verso in white), which includes the coat of arms of D. Antonio Migliore, bishop of San Marco to whom it was dedicated; followed by the dedication (f. [2 and 3]), dated 7 August 1591, and the "Tavola de’ capitoli" (f. [4]); the text extends over the next 82 pages and ends with a record (f. k6r, blank verso). At the end, there are eight double-page engravings (22x33 cm) representing a palm tree, a zebra and indigenous customs (6). The two fold-out maps of Congo and Africa, which unfortunately are not present, should also be found at the end of the volume. Second engraving (zebra) with missing lower margin. Exemplary with some foxing and occasional tidal stains on the lower margin (and some corners) of about 16 leaves. Some minor imperfections that do not affect the integrity of the volume. Full flexible parchment contemporary binding, with damage to the lower half of the spine (recoverable). It retains the original endpapers (with a French bookseller's stamp on the first pastedown). Barbosa Machado, I., p. 733. Brunet, IV, col. 651. Graesse, IV, p. 289. D. Manuel II Library, RES 35. Vide: "Relação do Reino do Congo e das terras circunvizinhas", facsimile edition, with a preface by Rosa Capeans (Lisbon, Agência Geral das Colónias, 1949).