UNLV Libraries One Millionth Volume

In April 2004 the UNLV Libraries reached a landmark in its history, its one millionth volume. To celebrate and mark this event a volume was specially chosen, a monumental book, chosen for its significance as a book, as an artifact of the culture of printing, and for its relevance to our library, our collections, our university, our intellectual and cultural community, and to us here in Las Vegas Nevada. Many libraries choose a volume of rare and historic value that often has to do with the history or origins or associations of the library. Works of early exploration are popular, they are grand, ornate and appeal to our national temperament of exploration and hearkening back to distant cultures to which we feel related, either emotionally or by blood.

UNLV Libraries, Special Collections has unique and rare collections in a number of areas, particularly gaming, the city of Las Vegas and the American West, While our rarest (or oldest) volumes are associated with the (ancient) history of gaming, the difficulty of identifying and acquiring a rare volume in this somewhat arcane field precluded that option. And instead of falling back upon that icon of American western exploration, Lewis and Clark, it was decided instead to acquire a very fine multi-volume history, published in Madrid between 1601 and 1615 recounting the discovery, exploration and conquest of the New World by the Spanish, because the site of the University of Nevada Las Vegas (and it's original native peoples) were “discovered” not by the Americans, but by the Spanish, and as such was part of the great Spanish Empire. And so it is appropriate that our millionth volume be a history of the Spanish in the New World because in fact Las Vegas and the Southwest continues to be a Spanish frontier in the New World.

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Title page from the first Decade of Herrera's Historia . All the title pages depict scenes and individuals from the history, both Spanish and Amerindian.

Antonio De Herrera, Historia General de los hechos de los Castellanos en las islas I tierra firme Del mar océano. . Desde el año de 1492 hasta el de 1531 ( Madrid , 1601-1615)

[The General History of the Deeds of the Castilians in the Isles and Mainland of the Ocean Sea .]

Bound in vellum in four volumes. With engraved title pages, and 14 engraved maps

First half comprised of four ‘decades' covering the years 1492-1531, with a “description of the West Indies” and 14 engraved maps published in Madrid, 1601, second part, comprised of three ‘decades' bringing the work up to the year 1554, published in 1615.

About 800 copies were printed of which approximately twenty-five copies are known in libraries in North America and Great Britain, including Oxford, London, Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of North Carolina, and the University of Texas.

The first English translation of Herrera – much abridged –appeared in 1728 under the title The General History of the Vast Continent and Islands of America , Commonly call'd the West Indies , From the First Discovery thereof: with the Best Accounts the People could give of their Antiquities.

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