GIOVANNI BATTISTA RAMUSIO: DELLE NAVIGATIONI ET VIAGGI. VENEZIA GIUNTI 1613-1606-1556. COMBINED EDITIONS as usually, the important third volume in First edition. FOLIO, imposing books, all with contemporary vellum,vellum soiled, some marginal wear at the bindings, complete the work in three volumes,without the extra ten maps in volumes I and III, but with all the 42 beautiful woodcuts engravings at the text. Volume I:[70],394 sheets. and 9 woodcuts,Volume II:[54], 257 sheets, 91 sheets and one woodcut (complete this volume, as had no maps),Volume III: 6 sheets,34 sheets,453 sheets and 32 woodcuts ( among them 20 with beautiful 16th century contemporary coloring), text mostly clean and bright, occasionally some spotting, light scattered browning, marginal worming, light water staining and generally few wear over the more than two thousands pages, overall in very good condition. It is arguably the most important collection of travel narratives ever published. It was the first systematic attempt to compile the world’s geographical knowledge into a single work, essentially a Geographical Bible of the Renaissance.Each volume focuses on a specific part of the known world:Volume I focuses on Africa and the East Indies. It includes the travels of Alvise Cadamosto, Vasco da Gama, and Amerigo Vespucci. Volume II focuses on Near East, levant and Russia, it contains a lot of accounts regarding Greece and the Levant, as of Marco Polo, of the Armenian Hayton on Anatolia of the 13th century, of Maria Angiolello travel to Constantinople and Trebizond, the travel of Barbaro in 1436 in Constantinople and Black sea, the travel of Contarini in 1473 in Pontos area, the travels of Camposo, Rufo, sigismond to Russia, a very early edition of Arrianos travel on Pontos, manuzio travel to eastern Black sea,Zeno brothers travels to Persia in the 15th century, odoric travel to the East, as well many other. Volume III focuses on the Americas containing the reports of Columbus, Cortés, Pizarro, and many other travel accounts.Ramusio was a diplomat and scholar. He didn't just collect stories; he edited them for accuracy, comparing different accounts to provide the most reliable version of the truth. He intended to publish a fourth volume, but the manuscript was destroyed in a fire at the Giunti printing house in 1557, shortly after his death. A monumental work.