Balboa's Dogs Attacking a Group of Panamanian Sodomites
Frankfurt (1590-1594). 9 1/4, 1594.
Item #8564
This engraving is from Theodor De Bry's important historical work, Grands Voyages. This from the German edition with this particular engraving being published in Frankfurt between 1590 and 1594 for de Bry by J. Feyrabend. Grands Voyages is considered one of the most remarkable collections of voyages published in the Age of Discovery.
Believed to be the first representation of homosexuality ever printed, the engraving depicts a gory scene of eight Spanish conquistadores watching their dogs kill a group of Indians. Balboa set his dogs on forty to fifty people of Quarequa described as being “dressed as women” (Martyr 1912 [1516]:285), or having committed the nefarious sin (pecado nefando). See https://www.colorado.edu/genders/2016/05/19/los-huecos-negros-cannibalism-sodomy-and-failure-modernity-tierra-firme. The text includes the following statement: "Greatly astonished he [Balboa] ...understood that the kinglet and all of his courtiers were smitten by that abominable crime against nature so stunned him ...that he went up to forty of the savages, bade them all be seized and bringing in the dogs he ordered the savages be torn to pieces."
Very good, light wear and yellowing. Rare.
Price: $2,000.00