Histoire Naturelle des Indes
Illustrated manuscript
Bequest of Clara S. Peck, 1983
In 1983, The Morgan Library & Museum received, as the bequest of Clara S. Peck, an extraordinary volume whose beautiful paintings and descriptions document the plant, animal, and human life of the Caribbean late in the sixteenth century. Spaniards had already begun to exert influence over the indigenous people of the area when explorers from England and France arrived, among them Sir Francis Drake. The volume, known as the Drake Manuscript and titled Histoire Naturelle des Indes when it was bound in the eighteenth century, gives us a wonderful picture of daily life at the time of Drake's many visits to the region. Although Drake's connection to the manuscript is uncertain, he is mentioned on more than one occasion by the authors. Drake himself is known to have painted, but none of his work survives.
Contents: 199 images of West Indian plants, animals and human life, with accompanying manuscript captions written in late sixteenth-century French.
Medium: Most of the illustrations consist of a black chalk underdrawing and a combination of pen and brown ink with watercolor; on some images selected areas have also been glazed with a gum.
Binding: Bound or rebound in brown leather in the late 18th century.
Pagination: Penciled folio numbers (1–125) in lower right corner of each page were added by The Morgan Library & Museum. Folios 92v–93, 93v–94, and 95v–96 are fold-out leaves.
Come Les Yndes Boucquane Ou Rotissent Le Poisson Et La Chair (How the Indians Smoke or Roast Fish and Meat)
The Indians make a big fire and when they see the wood turning to charcoal, they take four wooden forks, drive them into the earth and lay several sticks across the forks at a foot and a half above the fire. Then they spread out their fish and meat upon it and when they feel the heat of the fire, the smoke of the fat dropping into the fire smokes or roasts the meat and the fish which are good eating. They turn them often for fear of burning them and when the meat and fish are cooked, they have the color of a red herring.